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Brisbane Roar continued their winning streak to 29-straight, thanks to a second half strike from Mitch Nichols at Suncorp Stadium overnight.
The win has confirmed for Central Coast Mariners coach Graham Arnold that Brisbane are still the team to beat in the A-League.
“People have asked me who I think the favourites are and I’d say Brisbane,” Arnold said.
“I’ve known Ange for a long time and if you lose three or four quality players, what, do you think he’s going to bring in duds? Of course he’s going to bring in good quality players that can fit in the system that he wants to play,
“Whoever is more consistent than Brisbane will win the competition.”
The Mariners struggled to maintain possession for much of the game leaving very few opportunities to go on the attack up front.
“Brisbane were the better side tonight, we have to be honest. They moved the ball around quicker and better,
“But we’ve got nothing to bitch about,” Arnold explained.
The one highlight for the Mariners was the near flawless goalkeeping of Matthew Ryan.
“Personally I was pretty happy with my game tonight. But in saying that it’s hard to stay positive when we don’t come out with the three points,” Ryan said.
Arnold however, was keen on keeping the youngster grounded.
“Look, that’s what he’s paid for,” the Mariners coach chuckled.
At just 19 years of age, Ryan, who had already represented Australia in the Under-20 side and notched up 31 appearances for the Mariners, wowed the crowd with his work at the back.
The man that got one past him though, Mitch Nichols, had this to say when asked if Ryan was one of the harder goalkeepers to score against,
“Nah it’s just me. I just hit it straight at him and hit the post – nothing to do with him.”
Nichols was just one of the Roar's players who were instrumental in the forward push toward the Central Coast goal. But in the feisty encounter, it wasn’t easy-going for Brisbane.
Knowing the history between the two clubs, the match saw a total of five yellow cards dished out, four of which were against the Mariners.
The villain last time they met, the Mariners’ Pedj Bojic earned the first yellow card of the game with an aggressive tackle on the Roar’s new signing, Issey Nakajima-Farran.
The Canadian international was showing his class for Brisbane with some innovative passing, and nice runs in the box and down the left wing.
Nakajima-Farran said the way Brisbane play is not dissimilar to his last club, AC Horsens in the Danish Superliga.
“I was always at the club where they would play from the back and there were never really any long balls,
“We usually play 4-4-2 back in Denmark whereas right here its 4-3-3 with a different kind of attacking option, so in that sense it’s a fantastic opportunity for me,” Nakajima-Farran said.
The footballer, who also spends his free time as an accomplished artist, hinted at his intention to be a main goal scorer for Brisbane this season.
“I thought I linked up pretty well with the other guys, with the through passes and one-twos with Thomas and Mitch,
“I only had one long-range shot on goal and I’m really wanting more chances than that. But I think that comes with time.”
Roar coach Ange Postecoglou was impressed with the pony-tailed winger who seemed to be involved in everything on the night.
“I thought Issey in particular was really exciting in the first half,
“I think he’s going to be a real handful,” he said.
Along with Nakajima-Farran, other new signings Besart Berisha and Kofi Danning were no shrinking violets on the big stage either, each with near misses in front of goal.
“The new players, they did their job today,
“They added to what we’ve established here. Hopefully from our point of view when they get a little bit more settled there’ll be even more improvement in them and us as a whole,” Postecoglou said.
Brisbane will now focus their attention on next week’s blockbuster away from home against Sydney FC, but Postecoglou is confident his team is headed in the right direction.
“It sets up a really good foundation for us to keep improving this year. This is our bench mark and it’s not a bad place to start at.”