Despite a chance to go 5 points clear on top of the A-League, the Wanderers elected instead to hand one of their title rivals all three points with a display of utter incompetence.
Brisbane opened the scoring 4 minutes in after absorbing pressure for the opening exchanges. Jamie McClaren continued his scoring run, Hingert broke down the right flank with Sotirio failing to track back, his cut back found Maclaren and his attempt squeezed underneath Liam Reddy as Brendan Hamill got caught ball watching. Thankfully for the visitor's, even with the Roar dominating the play, they went into the break just a goal down.
It took all the way until the 74th minute before the Wanderers even looked like scoring, as Tony Popovic elected not to make early subs, his first one, Santalab was put through on goal by Mitch Nichols, the striker being cut down by Michael Theo the Roar keeper, and despite the clear goal scoring opportunity only being punished with a yellow card. Andreu stepped up for the penalty shot and managed to beat Theo down the middle.
4 minutes later it looked like the Wanderers were going to storm clear at the top as Romeo Castelen waltzed through a sea of Roar defenders, a heavy touch was beneficial in that it kept the ball out of a desperate lunge by Bowles, before his shot fired under Theo.
In the 81st minute the Wanderers lead, and their grip on the Premiership had evaporated. Another awful attempt at defending by Hamill saw Maclaren ghost in unmarked at the near post to slice it past Reddy. Petratos rubbed salt into the wounds as Henrique took advantage of an abysmal sideways attempted pass from Dimas, playing in Petratos who slotted it home for 3-2.
A score of 4-2 looked more likely that 3-3, and the introduction of Matt Sim & Kearyn Baccus far too late did nothing to change the situation. Substitutions coming far too late has become something of a trend for Tony Popovic, and the ongoing selection of the useless Jaushua Sotirio is more and more baffling after every week where he fails to perform. A game that could have cemented a spot at the top of the table was not the time to experiment with Mebrahtu playing upfront in his first start ever, nor was it the time to throw Matt Sim into the squad. A massive improvement is needed for the club to have any hope of winning either of the trophies on offer at the end of the season.
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