Brisbane have won for the first time in Sydney and extended their unbeaten run to 16 matches after seeing off the Sky Blues 1-0 at the SFS on Sunday evening.
A well-taken goal from Kosta Barbarouses just before the half-time break separated the sides, the victory maintaining Roar’s comfortable lead at the head of the Hyundai A-League table.
Coming off a 4-0 hiding at the hands of Central Coast last start, Sydney were just as bad in the first half but improved in the second term without finding the goal that would have got them back into the contest.
Brisbane were good value for their win, ending their poor record at the SFS which stretched back nine winless games since the start of the league.
They can thank the talented Barbarouses for snapping the six-year drought.
Mitchell Nicholls and then Jean Carlos Solorzano produced lovely first-time passes to open up the defence and allow Barbarouses to ghost into the box and go one on one with keeper Ivan Necevski.
Despite the acute angle – and with Necevski ignoring the far post in favour of guarding his near post – Barbarouses hit his shot across goal and into the left-hand corner of the net.
It was a lovely goal, with the lead-up work just as good as the finish.
Brisbane had dominated from the start, monopolising possession and panicking Sydney into error on the rare occasion the Sky Blues found themselves on the ball.
Some of the passing from the home side bordered on under-10 stuff at times, the small crowd roaring its disapproval with each ill-timed, over-hit, under-hit or misdirected ball.
It seemed just a matter of time before Brisbane’s dominance was rewarded with a goal, possession running 68 per cent in the visitors’ favour.
Necevski made a double save on 13 minutes to thwart Brisbane and was again on hand to palm away a stinging drive from Solorzano soon after.
But something had to give and four minutes before the break it did with Barbarouses’ goal.
Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka brought on striker Alex Brosque for the second half and his arrival enlivened the hosts for a period.
But on the few occasions they threaded their way through the Roar defender, they found keeper Michael Theoklitos blocking their way.
At the other end Necevski was called on several times to keep Brisbane to the one goal.
He held up his end of the bargain but there was nothing to celebrate at the opposite end of the pitch, the loss leaving Sydney in the bottom three and with a massive task to get anywhere near the top six.
Sydney FC 0
Brisbane 1 (Barbarouses 41m)
Crowd: 7554
