A-League Review: Lions finally find their Roar

Brisbane Roar finally picked up their first points of the Hyundai A-League season thanks to a 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle Jets.

Brazilian Henrique was the hero as he came off the bench to score a hat-trick to ensure the Roar move up from the bottom of the ladder.

After replacing the injured Jean Carlos Solorzano, Henrique broke the deadlock just after the break before setting up a goal for Steven Lustica just past the hour mark.

Henrique added two more including an 89th minute strike to inflict further misery on the Hunter Stadium side.

Roar could even afford to miss a second half penalty, with Jets ‘keeper Mark Birighitti pulling off a superb save to deny Dimitri Petratos.

Adelaide United went top of the tree, if only for a few hours thanks to a goal deep into injury time at Coopers Stadium.

Visiting Wellington Phoenix took a deserved lead when a quick fire counter attack saw Dutchman Roly Bonevacia put the New Zealand side ahead.

A goal from Nigel Boogaard, his first for Adelaide, drew his side level before the break before a spirited defensive display by the Phoenix looked to earn them a point.

But with the last kick of the game Sergio Cirio cleverly lifted the ball into the net following a knock down. In the process of winning the game the forward also spared his own blushes having moments earlier missed a golden to chance to have won the game for his side

Perth Glory lead the way after they disposed of Asian Champions Western Sydney Wanderers.

Despite lifting Asia’s equivalent of the Champions League, WSW have yet to register a point in the Hyundai A-League and that dire situation remains the same after their visit to Perth.

Glory’s Dino Djulbic and Scott Jamieson scored either side of the break to help the home side to their fifth win in six matches.

The visitors rallied and a late Jaushua Sotirio goal ensured there would be some nervous fans inside nib Stadium, but Tony Popovic’s side were unable to find an equaliser as they went down 2-1 in Western Australia.

Both Sydney and Melbourne Victory lost ground on the leaders as they played out an entertaining goalless draw at the Allianz Stadium.

Both sides saw goals correctly rules out for offside in the opening ten minutes, with Victory’s opportunity more wasteful than unlucky.

A slip by Sydney defender Sasa Ognenovski allowed Fahid Ben Khalfallah a clean sight of goal. With team-mate Besart Berisha in support, the Tunisian decided to square the ball instead of trying to beat keeper Vedran Janjetovic, only for Berisha to be inexcusably offside.

Janjetovic was called into further action several times more to ensure the Sky Blues have gone four games without conceding a goal.

Central Coast Mariners left it late in Melbourne as a last-gasp goal rescued them a point and denied City their second win in a row.

Fresh from winning their first three points of the season last weekend, City started well and led through Mate Dugandzic and Erik Paartalu.

But the visitors proved there aren’t a spent force in the A-League just yet and rallied to go home with a share of the spoils.

Despite looking like they had ran out of ideas, the Mariners halved the deficit with 11 minutes to go when Glen Trifiro curled home a beautiful free-kick to give his side a lifeline.

With the home crowds whistled being heard for miles around and as the clock ticked over the allotted three minutes of injury time, John Hutchinson took aim and drove the ball home from outside the box to break the hearts of those City fans.

A slip by Sydney defender Sasa Ognenovski allowed Fahid Ben Khalfallah through on goal. With Besart Berisha in support – and only goal-keeper Vedran Janjetovic in front of them – the Tunisian did the right thing by squaring the ball to his team-mate to tap. Only problem was Berisha had inexplicably got himself offside, blowing a certain goal inside the first five minutes.