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18Jan20
Brisbane End Wellington's Unbeaten Streak
by Jeremy Ruane
Brisbane Roar brought an end to Wellington Phoenix's club record-equalling nine-match unbeaten streak in the Hyundai A-League at Suncorp Stadium on January 18, edging the visitors 1-0 in front of 9987 fans, who endured heavy rain throughout the last twenty minutes of play.
The home team rode their luck during the first half, in which Wellington twice struck the crossbar, but Robbie Fowler got his tactics and substitutions spot on in the second spell and it was the impact of these which ultimately undid the in-form visitors.
It was tight early doors, with Ulises Davila's seventh minute daisy-cutter sizzling past Jamie Young's left-hand upright two minutes before Stefan Marinovic was perfectly placed to deal with a Jack Hingert shot from similar distance at the other end of the park.
Wellington instantly counter-attacked, Callum McCowatt charging downfield into Brisbane's half without any hint of a challenge being offered by the home team. He got to the edge of the penalty area before letting rip, only to see his shot suffer a similar fate to Davila's moments earlier.
Jaushua Sotirio was soon getting in behind the Brisbane ranks, and upon being released by Davila in the fourteenth minute he delivered a delicious cross towards the far post which had Gary Hooper's name written all over it. The retreating Scott Neville saved the day for Brisbane on this occasion with a timely headed clearance.
After Jay O'Shea had gone close from distance, Wellington opened up Brisbane once more, this time down the left, where McCowatt rewarded the overlapping run of Liberato Cacace with a pass which invited the fullback to deliver a first-time cross for Hooper to exploit. He was prevented from doing so by Daniel Bowles' vital intervention.
Seconds later, the visitors executed a delightful interchange of passes culminating in Sotirio rattling the crossbar in the 27th minute. Brisbane counter-attacked instantly, only for Steven Taylor to time his challenge to perfection to prevent Bradden Inman from capitalising on a Jack Hingert through ball.
The danger wasn't over for the visitors, however, because from O'Shea's resulting corner, Jacob Pepper unleashed a bullet header from eight yards which careered past Marinovic's left-hand upright - the 'keeper would have been beaten all ends up had it been on target, as no one was covering the post.
Back came the visitors, the dashing figure of Sotirio prevented from capitalising on a 33rd minute opening by the alertness of Young, who raced out of his penalty area to avert the danger.
Four minutes later, Wellington had strong penalty appeals turned down by referee Alex King with the assistance of the Video Assistant Referee, whose evidence suggested that Pepper's hands were in a natural position as they were struck by a Sotirio piledriver following a McCowatt corner.
Suffice to say, the match officials clearly failed biology at school, because last I looked, the natural position of one's hands is not in the immediate vicinity of one's chest - this should have been a penalty, but for Wellington, it was to be one of those days, confirmation of which was just seconds away.
The ricochet off Pepper rebounded for a corner, which Davila delivered into the danger zone. Hooper flicked it onto the far post, where Taylor rose to send a header crashing into the crossbar.
Before half-time, Sotirio squandered another opportunity to give Wellington the lead, blazing over under pressure from Corey Brown after another fine through ball by McCowatt, whose passing was a feature of the first half.
He and his team-mates were far less effective in the second spell, however, with Liverpool legend Fowler tweaking things to perfection as they largely blunted Wellington's primary attacking weapons with a tactical approach straight out of the Rafael Benitez coaching manual.
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Brisbane soon became the more assertive team, threatening through both Inman and O'Shea early in the second spell, although only the latter's effort required the intervention of Marinovic - and a fine save it was, too, diving to his right to deny a shot he didn't see until late in the piece.
Davila responded with a twenty-yarder which Young dealt with capably, before Inman's deflected effort drew another save from the Wellington goalkeeper on the hour.
By this time, Scott McDonald had entered the fray for Brisbane, and he was shortly to be joined by Dylan Wenzel-Halls. But not before Davila led a Wellington counter-attack in the 64th minute in which the Mexican had Brown turning this way and that before finally letting fly with a shot which was deflected narrowly past Young's right-hand post.
Wenzel-Halls had only been on the pitch 100 seconds when he conjured up the game's decisive moment. Hingert's ball forward was flicked on by McDonald to his fellow newcomer, who cheekily nutmegged Taylor before blasting the ball beyond Marinovic and in via the underside of the crossbar - 1-0 Brisbane.
Wellington eagerly sought a swift riposte, their first attempt to do so drawing a quite stunning save from Young, who launched himself backwards to paw out a Hooper header after he'd been picked out following fine work by substitute David Ball.
The duo combined again seconds later, with Hooper just failing to get on the end of Ball's 76th minute cross-shot to the far post. Davila was next to chance his arm, only to see Young tip his twenty-five yard missile over the bar.
Payne's teasing cross-shot suffered the same fate in the 82nd minute, after which Young was right behind a low drive from McCowatt - a challenging save given the slippery playing conditions arising from the ongoing downpour.
Straight away, Brisbane counter-attacked, and should have wrapped up the points. Wenzel-Hall was through on the right, and drew the defence towards him before setting up Inman for what should have been a tap-in. But the striker got it horribly wrong, and ended up slicing the ball wide of an open goal - miss of the season contender right there!
Back came Wellington, all too well aware that their pursuit of a record-breaking tenth match unbeaten was dwindling by the second. Cacace got clear on the left and picked out Hooper at the near post, where he deftly flicked the ball beyond Young, but - sadly for the visitors - inches past the far post as well, with young substitute Ben Waine racing in in a vain bid to turn the ball home.
Tempers flared in the 86th minute as Cameron Devlin made the most of a mis-timed challenge right in front of the dugouts from Hingert, who became the sixth player - three from each team - to enter referee King's notebook.
He was swiftly followed by Wellington coach Ufuk Talay, who stormed out of his technical area and to the edge of the pitch in response to the challenge, which prompted a brief gathering of the clans before the officials swiftly restored order.
Another foul, deep in stoppage time, presented Wellington with the chance to equalise via a thirty yard free-kick, for which Marinovic raced forward to add an additional threat in Brisbane's penalty area. The opportunity was squandered by the visitors, who were consigned to their first defeat since November 3 as a result.
Brisbane: Young; Neville, Bowles (booked, 72), Gillesphey; Hingert (booked, 86), O'Shea, Pepper (booked, 32), Akbari (Wenzel-Halls, 67), Brown; Inman, Muratovic (McDonald, 55)
Wellington: Marinovic; Payne, Taylor, De Vere (Waine, 76), Cacace (booked, 87) (Sutton, 90); Sotirio (booked, 12) (Ball, 64), Devlin, Steinmann (booked, 20), McCowatt; Davila, Hooper
Referee: Alex King
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