Elsey completes comeback tale in Reds' shock win

League leaders Brisbane Roar succumbed to a late winner by Adelaide United's Jordan Elsey at Suncorp Stadium, who up until a week ago was not even supposed to take part in the match.

But football has a funny way of aligning circumstances and 19-year-old Elsey, recalled by Adelaide from his proposed loan at Kitchee SC, rose to head home Michael Zullo’s cross deep into stoppage time to put the visitors 2-1 to the good.

It completed a frustrating night for the Roar, who were their own worst enemies and did their best to hand Adelaide an unassailable advantage in the opening 45 minutes.

The orange backline looked doubtful throughout the half and were punished on 20 minutes when a lethargic Shane Steffanutto lost possession to Jeronimo Neumann.

The Argentine was brought down by Michael Theo in the box, who somehow only escaped with a yellow card even though he was the last man.

Justice was soon served as Theo’s brilliant saved agonisingly trickled away from his grasp and Neumann was on hand to poke home the opener. 

The Roar were not finished with their self-demise as Diogo Ferreira received a second yellow card before the break after needlessly going in for a challenge on Michael Zullo.

In truth, the hosts wrote the perfect script for the return of Besart Berisha from injury and the Albanian didn’t disappoint.

Having replaced Henrique 10 minutes after the break, he emphatically slotted in an equaliser in the 80th minute after neat lead-up work from Matt MacKay. 

Sensing a winner, Roar surged forward on the back of a 17,000-strong vociferous orange army, but Adelaide coach Josep Gombau’s substitution proved the more decisive.

Only recalled last Sunday after suspensions, injuries and call-ups to the Australian under-22 robbed the Reds squad of numbers, Elsey’s first A-League goal should ensure he is not heading back to Hong Kong any time soon.

"He went there, everything was ok, he was happy, the club was happy but last week for us was horrible,'' Gombau said.

"We had a lot of injuries and also, on Saturday, Antony Golec asked for permission to leave the club and go to China.

"Jordan was very happy there but accepted the decision because he's our player and he came on Sunday, on Monday started training and today he scores the goal.

"This is life, it's like this.''

The result is Brisbane’s second consecutive home loss, raising questions over their ability to dominate visiting sides adopting a more compact approach.

"It's a different game when you play at home because the opposition uses a different game plan,” Roar coach Mike Mulvey said.

“We just didn't move the ball quickly enough in the first half to move them about.

“We got the equaliser and still had the belief we could win the game.

“Their goal, it was some cross and some header by the big fella.

“Good luck to them - they go home with the points.”

The Reds now have the chance to launch themselves into the middle of the pack with a home match against Wellington Phoenix while the Roar must lick their wounds and travel to Perth.



Brisbane Roar: 1. Michael THEO (gk), 2. Matthew SMITH (c), 3. Shane STEFANUTTO (19. Jack HINGERT75’), 10. HENRIQUE (7. Besart BERISHA 56’), 11. Liam MILLER, 13. Jade NORTH, 14. Diogo FERREIRA, 17. Matthew McKAY, 18. Luke BRATTAN, 22. Thomas BROICH, 23. Dimitri PETRATOS

Adelaide United: 1. Eugene GALEKOVIC (c/gk), 2. Nigel BOOGARD, 3. Jonathan McKAIN, 7. Jeronimo NEUMANN (31. Ryan GRIFFITHS 63’), 8. ISAIS, 13. Steven LUSTICA, 14. Cameron WATSON (26. Anthony COSTA 73’), 16. Daniel BOWLES, 17. Awer MABIL (23. Jordan ELSEY 76’), 18. Michael ZULLO, 21. Tarek ELRICH