Berisha finds approval the best way

He scored the goal, patted the badge and mangled an attempted love heart hand signal, but did Besart Berisha's 90th-minute winner in Brisbane Roar's 2-1 victory over the Central Coast Mariners smooth things over with the home fans?


Well, that's for them to decide. All the Melbourne Victory-bound Albanian did on Sunday, really, was settle the match.

It was all his coach Mike Mulvey needed him to do.

Berisha's fortuitous looped finish capped another turnaround triumph for the league-leaders, breaking the resilience of a Mariners side which led in the 36th minute thanks to Mile Sterjovski's calm penalty.

"He won us the game today," Mulvey said.

"It is a team game but someone still has to stick the ball in the back of the net. I think there might have been a few nerves there for him today but [I’m] delighted for him because he’s had a very tough couple of few weeks."

While the visitors led until substitute Henrique finished with aplomb across Liam Reddy in the 66th minute, it was Brisbane applying the pressure from start to finish.

Several Roar chances preceded the equaliser and although Mitchell Duke clipped the outside of the upright late on it seemed only a home win would prevent a draw.

"We play without fear. I think that’s a very important aspect of our game," Mulvey said.

"We’ve got a great crowd that really galvanises us and gives us an injection of energy.

"Why not go for a win? Why settle for second best?"

Brisbane's attacking intent forced the Mariners into a counter-attacking approach for much of the match but despite nearly paying off, Central Coast coach Phil Moss said it was not the intended style.

“We don’t come anywhere just to sit back and defend,” Moss said.

“The problem was that we gave the ball away far too cheaply and didn’t control possession like we like to, so we ended up having to defend a lot more and probably deeper than what we would have liked."

Denied any points from a winning position at half-time, Moss was no less proud of the effort submitted by his team - which last week suffered the sudden departures of key figures Trent Sainsbury and Daniel McBreen.

“To come out of a week like we’ve just had, losing players of the calibre of McBreen and Sainsbury, and having to dig in the way we did against a top shelf Brisbane Roar team on their home patch I’m so proud of my boys," he said.

I thought we did ever so well to stay in the contest as long as we did and then we could have snatched a point at the end when Mitchell Duke hit the post.”

Instead, it was Berisha who went home a hero. Most in orange seemed content to nudge the knowledge of his committal elsewhere to history. How long will it stay there?



Brisbane Roar: 1. Michael THEO (gk), 15. James DONACHIE, 13. Jade NORTH, 2. Matt SMITH, 3. Shane STEFANUTTO, 18. Luke BRATTAN, 14. Diogo FERREIRA, 11. Liam MILLER, 23. Dimitri PETRATOS, 7. Besart BERISHA, 22. Thomas BROICH.

Bench: 20. Matt ACTON, 26. Corey BROWN, 28. Brandon BORRELLO, 10. HENRIQUE, 16. Jean Carlos SOLORZANO.


Central Coast Mariners: 12. Liam REDDY (gk), 15. Storm ROUX, 5. Zac ANDERSON, 4. Marcel SEIP, 3. Josh ROSE, 7. John HUTCHINSON, 8. Nick MONTGOMERY, 21. Mile STERJOVSKI, 17. Anthony CACERAS, 11. Nick FITZGERALD, 19. Matt SIMON.

Bench: 1. Justin PASFIELD (gk), 6. Brent GRIFFITHS, 22. Tom SLATER, 20. Berni IBINI, 9. Mitch DUKE.