Soccer: Barbarouses goal sinks old club Phoenix

Henrique of the Roar and Paul Ifill of the Phoenix compete for the ball. Photo / Getty Images

A well-taken goal by Brisbane Roar striker Costa Barbarouses ensured his former club Wellington Phoenix suffered their first loss of the season in an A-League match at Brisbane tonight.

Barbarouses grabbed his third career goal in the league by finishing off a nice exchange of passes with skipper Matt McKay with a sharp shot that beat Phoenix goalkeeper Mark Paston in the 73rd minute.

Tonight's defeat stretched the Phoenix's poor away record at Brisbane to five losses and a draw in six matches and their overall league record for away matches to 22 losses in 37 matches.

Fourth in the standings going into tonight's match with a win and a draw, the Phoenix played conservatively in the first half but managed to give striker Dylan MacAllister a handful of good chances, the best of which came in the 34th minute.

The tall striker leapt high to meet a corner but goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos did enough to pad the ball up before it was cleared off the line by a defender's head.

MacAllister had two quick shots early in the game with his third minute shot blocked by Theoklitos and then his header off a the subsequent corner went wide.

Another Paul Ifill cross late in the first half also went wide.

Brisbane relied on quick counterattacks with striker Henrique and Barbarouses prominent in many of the moves.

Paston, despite struggling with a groin injury, was up to the challenge as Brisbane tried to break the deadlock before halftime.

He went down twice in quick succession to take balls off the feet of Mitch Nicholls and then Thomas Broich.

The Phoenix started the second half brightly with flankbacks Manny Muscat and Tony Lochhead joining in the attack more regularly but other than a couple of Ifill snapshots there was little for Theoklitos to be troubled about.

The introduction of Brisbane striker Reinaldo, helped turn the match with his powerful presence.

The first sign of trouble for the Phoenix came when Henrique exposed the lack of pace in centreback Ben Sigmund to send a cross the Reinaldo only just missed connecting with.

It was Reinaldo's turn to beat Sigmund minutes later, producing the ball for McKay and Barbarouses to create the opening for the Roar's goal.

"Most important thing was two wins on the trot at home and to get my first goal of the season was great as well," Barbarouses said in a post match interview.

"Wellington made it difficult for us but we knew we had to keep our confidence in our ourselves to play our game . . . and we did it and came away with the result."

Brisbane Roar 1 (Costa Barbarouses) Wellington Phoenix 0.
Halftime: 0-0

- NZPA