Brisbane Roar have bowed out of the 2019 FFA Cup following a loss in a penalty shootout against the Central Coast Mariners.
The Roar twice came from behind with Brad Inman & Roy O’Donovan both finding the back of the net in a 2-2 draw as the sides couldn’t be split after both 90 & 120 minutes, before the visitors prevailed 4-2 in the shootout.
Head Coach Robbie Fowler says the result wasn’t a fair reflection on the effort shown by his troops.
“I’m pleased with lots of things tonight, I thought we put in a good performance and we probably deserved to win the game being honest – it does become a bit of a lottery in penalty shoot outs,” Fowler said.
“I think the lads gave everything. We’re obviously massively disappointed, we wanted to do well, but I can’t fault the boys because I thought they were tremendous in front of an unbelievable crowd.”
A record crowd of 6,235 passed through the gates at Dolphin Stadium, surpassing the figure set in last year’s Round of 32 at the same venue.
“The crowd were magnificent, they got right behind the team and obviously we’re sorry we couldn’t do much more than what we did,” Fowler continued.
“We gave it our best shot and we probably did deserve to win the game – sometimes you get results, sometimes you get bad results – that’s the way it is in football sometimes.”
The Roar’s attention now turns to two Surf City Cup fixtures at the Croatian Sports Centre on the Gold Coast, facing Perth Glory on Friday night (6:30pm KO) and Newcastle Jets on Sunday evening (4pm KO).
MATCH DETAILS
FFA Cup Round of 16: Brisbane Roar v Sydney FC
Dolphin Stadium, Redcliffe
Wednesday, 28 August
Brisbane Roar 2 (Inman 47’, O’Donovan 88’)
Central Coast Mariners 2 (Simon 26′, Silvera 85’)
Penalties: Brisbane 2-4 Central Coast Mariners
Half-time: 0-1
Crowd: 6,235
