Heart keep ticking as Roar fail to impress

Melbourne Heart’s hot run of form has continued by comfortably defeating ladder leaders Brisbane Roar 1-0 on sunny Sunday afternoon in Melbourne at AAMI Park.

An Orlando Engelaar second half effort was more than enough to see the Heart inch ever so closer to getting off the bottom of the ladder for the first time since early on in the season.

The former Dutch international made it two goals in as many weeks thanks to some great work down the flank from team mate Mate Dugandzic.

If you hadn’t checked the A-League standings in a while you would have no idea that this was a match between the two sides occupying first and last place, and that the winning side have been on the foot of the table for most of the year.

Heart played as though they were league leaders and everybody’s favourite to take the title with a display that dominated the once untouchable Roar.

It was an extremely dour first half that offered very little on the entertainment front. An Iain Ramsey effort after four minutes was the most note-worthy piece of the half that Roar ‘keeper Michael Theo managed to save comfortably.

Both sides were content with keeping the ball to themselves in first 45 with neither goalkeeper being called to action at all. That all changed in the 60th minute as Engelaar kept the Heart renaissance going strong with a goal that would prove to be the difference between both sides.

The goal seemed to lift the Heart as for the first time in the match a side to dominate proceedings as they pressed for that all elusive second goal.

The home side looked to have been gifted a glorious chance as they were awarded an indirect free kick inside the penalty box as Brisbane Striker Besart Berisha appeared to have bizarrely sit on the ball. Engelaar took the resulting free kick but could only send it straight to a packed Roar wall.

Berisha’s ball sit wasn’t the only incident the Albanian was involved in, the soon to be Melbourne Victory man missed a glorious chance to steal a point in the death that he uncharacteristically squandered.

Berisha was clean on goal in stoppage time and would have scored if not for a miraculous Patrick Kisnorbo tackle saved the home side to ensure they would take maximum points.

Berisha had a very quiet day by his lofty standards. The striker was essentially on spectator status for the entire 90 as the pace and tempo of the match didn’t allow him to get involved at all.

That one tackle seemed to sum up Brisbane’s day as nothing really went right for them. That was a chance Berisha would usually hit nine times out of ten, but not today.

Heart were good value for the win to take their unbeaten stretch to six games, in the very same season they equalled the league record for consecutive games without a win.

Despite his teams hot run of form, interim Heart manager John Vant Shicp was still bullish on his side’s chances on making the playoff for this season.

“We can make it because there is seven games. We are six points behind. We are taking every game, game by game.

“The most important thing is to getting the team playing again. That was the hardest game we have played.”

Vant Shicp did give a special mention to Kisnorbo for his efforts throughout the afternoon.

“He has shown for weeks now that he is really important for the team.

“He is a rock in the defence.”

Brisbane Roar manager Mike Mulvey didn’t mince his words when giving his opinions of the game.

“I think it was a dead set nil-nil, get a point go home, re-address it and get ready for next week. But unfortunately it’s not.

“It’s a bad loss. We didn’t have any zest about us today. We weren’t fast enough in the first half.

“It’s not that we were bereft of ideas, we just didn’t give ourselves the best opportunities to be successful in the front third.

“You got to give credit to Heart, I thought they were tenacious. They put us off stride a little bit.“

While not yet in panic mode, there must be some concern in the Roar camp that for the second week in a row they have lost to sides on the other end of the table to them.

The Roar did look considerably off their game at AAMI Park and will need to rectify this mini-slump they find themselves in.

While on the other end of the spectrum. The Heart just keep ticking on and now unbelievably find themselves just six points off sixth place and will look to get one over their travel-weary neighbours the Victory next Saturday in the next instalment of the Melbourne Derby.



Melbourne Heart: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE(GK), 4. Orlando ENGELAAR, 6. Patrick GERHARDT, 7. Iain RAMSEY, 8.Massimo MURDOCCA(C), 13. Jonatan GERMANO, 15. David WILLIAMS, 16.Aziz BEHICH, 17. Jason HOFFMAN, 23. Mate DUGANDZIC, Patrick KISNORBO

Bench: 20. Tando VELAPHI(GK), 18. David VRANKOVIC, 19. Ben GARUCCIO, 21. Stefan MAUK, 22 Nick KALMAR


Brisbane Roar: 1. Michael THEO(GK), 2. Matt SMITH(C), 3. Shane STEFFANUTTO, 5. Ivan FRANJIC, 7. Besart BERISHA, 10. HENRIQUE, 11. Liam MILLER, 13. Jade NORTH, 17. Matt MCKAY, 18. Luke BRATTAN, 22 Thomas BROICH

Bench: 20. Matthew ACTON(GK), 14. Diogo FERREIRA, 15. James DONACHIE, 16. Jean Carlos SOLORZANO, 23. Dimitri PETRATOS