Queensland Roar continued its climb up the A-League ladder with a one-nil win over Melbourne Victory at Olympic Park on Friday night.
Matt McKay scored the only goal of a tight encounter on the quarter-hour, reacting quickest to a blocked save from an Alex Brosque shot.
Victory spent the last thirty minutes a player down as captain Kevin Muscat was dismissed after being cautioned twice within minutes. Firstly Massimo Murdocca, and then Hyuk-Su Seo, felt Muscat's overly-rough tackles, both drawing cards from referee Mark Shield. Geoffrey Claeys also saw an immediate red four minutes from time after hacking down substitute Jordan Simpson who had entered the fray only seconds beforehand, leaving Victory with just nine on the park.
Amazingly, Victory then had two late chances to draw the match, but Roar goalkeeper Tom Willis was defiant to the last.
"It was a complete injustice that we came here second from bottom," said an expansive Roar coach Miron Blieberg after the game. "We have all the ingredients."
"We moved the ball around better," said Blieberg. "It's not that we won tactically in the midfield. (Murdocca) and McKay were just a bit too quick and too sharp for the opposition."
Victory coach Ernie Merrick now has three compulsory changes to make for next week's home game against Newcastle Jets, two to cover the dismissals, and a further one to replace Montevideo-bound Archie Thompson.
"It was an entertaining game, and credit to Queensland. They played very well," said Victory coach Ernie Merrick after the game.
"It's pretty tough to play with ten, then nine players. I thought they did really well, they worked hard and we nearly stole a late equaliser."
"We've got to pick it up from here," he said. "We have to rebound to make sure we get a result next week at home."
Fittingly for the two top-scoring teams in the league, the game opened brightly, with both teams having excellent scoring opportunities before ten minutes had elapsed, and they came thick and fast thereafter. Royce Brownlie forced a sharp one-handed save from Eugene Galekovic with just six minutes gone, and Thompson headed over after a fine cross from Richard Kitzbichler barely two minutes later.
Roar's quick-passing game gave it the better of the contest, and had Victory chasing shadows for long periods of the first half. Two players passed on by Victory took their chance to show the wrong decision had been made. Both Murdocca and Spase Dilevski had fine games for Roar.
The goal promised from the first minutes wasn't long in coming. With a quarter of an hour gone, Dilevski cut in from the right and sent a central ball to Brosque. Brosque's shot was blocked but not held by Galekovic who had spread himself well. McKay was first to the rebound and bundled the ball into the net as the Victory defence stood flat-footed.
"Nobody expected it to drop (out of Galekovic's grasp)," said Merrick. "But you should be in there in case it does break loose."
Daniel Allsopp had a chance to equalise within four minutes when he got behind the Roar defence, but Willis made one of his many excellent saves with a block. Willis once again came to his side's rescue when he was quickly down to hold a Steve Pantelidis header from a Kitzbichler free-kick.
The game was being played at a frantic pace. Brosque for Roar and Kitzbichler for Victory gave their markers a torrid time, Kitzbichler taking Remo Buess to the edge of a yellow card after a series of fouls on the speedy Austrian. Buess' foul count brought out a card eventually after he'd floored Carl Recchia in the early moments of the second half.
Thompson too was causing difficulty with his pace and movement. At one point in the game he and Karl Dodd continued with a private dispute as the ball disappeared into the distance. Shortly before the interval and with his mind back on the play, Thompson sent in a cross from the right to an untended Andy Vlahos at the far-post. Vlahos' left-foot volley hit the side-netting with Willis scrambling to cover.
But it was Roar's quick-passing game which gave it the edge, Seo and Murdocca its key practitioners. Seo was always dangerous too in a shooting position, even at a distance as his early-season form has shown. Just after the interval he managed to manoeuvre himself into a fine position for a cut-back, shooting just wide with Galekovic grasping air.
With Victory committing resources to attack it seemed inevitable that an equaliser would come. But Muscat's double-booking in successive tackles took the pressure off Roar. Blieberg then decided to twist the knife by withdrawing midfielder McKay and replacing him with attacker Michael Baird. The pressure was now felt by Victory as the defence was kept to the bare minimum in its push for a levelling goal.
Thompson continued to be the avenue of Victory's best chances. With under twenty minutes remaining he brought down the ball, cut inside and took a left-foot shot which Willis did well to block.
Victory had a penalty claim turned down as Vlahos skipped into the area and was tackled by Josh McCloughlan. It was the big defender's last touch of the game as he'd injured his ankle in the challenge.
Claeys had a late rush of blood to the head resulting in an early finish for him, and meaning Roar had time and space to keep the ball from the remaining nine Victory players until time ran out. But the impetus suddenly fell Victory's way again with two clear chances in added time, one falling to Allsopp after lead-up work by Michael Ferrante which required a diving block by Willis.