Brisbane Roar will take on the Central Coast Mariners this Friday night at Kayo Stadium in hopes of turning their recent results around.
The last time these two teams met was in May of last year when the Roar went down 2-0 at home.
In that match, Central Coast’s Lewis Miller found the back of the net in the 40th minute after a header from a glorious cross from Englishman, Cy Goddard.
The Mariners secured the victory with a Garang Kuol goal in the 63rd minute.
The Roar had no shortage of goal opportunities in that match, although struggled with converting and will be looking for a better outcome this Friday against third place Central Coast.
Central Coast have gotten the better of the Roar in their last three meetings, with Brisbane’s last win against them being in April 2021.
Along with that, Brisbane have not won a match since Round 11 in a win against the Melbourne Victory and with the addition of new signing in Serbian Striker Stefan Scepovic, will be looking for more goal opportunities.
Scepovic is settling in with his new team on the training pitch as he adjusts to the new Queensland environment and time difference ahead of the match tomorrow.
The Serbian striker is eager to get some minutes to his name and to put on a performance on his debut, whether that be tomorrow or in the coming weeks.
“I will try to be as fit as possible for tomorrow,” Scepovic said.
“I think I’ll need some days to adapt to this weather and these conditions, but I’ll be okay.”
Head Coach Warren Moon is hoping his squad can avoid making the same mistakes and take the chances that come their way tomorrow night as they chase a win at Kayo Stadium.
Despite Scepovic only arriving Tuesday morning, Moon will be keen to test his new striker and if all signs are positive, will aim to involve him somewhere in the match.
“We need to score goals and that’s what he’s come to do, he’s coming to score goals and hopefully we can get him on the park,” Moon said.
After a disappointing 1-2 loss last week against Adelaide United, Moon is hoping the Roar can twist their fate and start taking opportunities to bump them up to finals contention.
“All I can go off is the positives, which is the performance. We played really well, we created double the chances, all the big opportunities came our way, and we didn’t take them and that’s been the story of our season so far,” Moon said.
“The time is now that we have to start taking those opportunities or we’re not going to be playing finals,” he added.
Robbie Kruse is expecting his second child, therefore is not being placed under any pressure to get out onto the pitch until he is able and comfortable to. The club wishes his family the best at this exciting time.
Moon describes the Mariners as one of the most attacking teams in the competition with the second most goals scored behind Melbourne City and is therefore aware of the great quality side awaiting his team tomorrow night.
New recruits Marcel Canadi, Taras Gomulka and Noah Smith are included in the squad for tomorrow night’s match.
The Roar currently sit in tenth place so will be eager for points this weekend.
Friday night’s kick off is at 6:45pm AEST on Paramount+.
