Brisbane Roar Academy lost 1-0 to Lions FC at AJ Kelly Park on Sunday evening but it was a disallowed goal which took the spotlight as the young Roar on the wrong end of a refereeing decision in the NPLQLD
Former Wellington Phoenix star Louis Fenton opened the scoring in the 14th minute for Lions following a neat passing move before Tommy Waddingham equalised on the back of a determined run from Louis Zabala, or so it seemed.
A raised flag from the assistant saw the referee called over and he duly disallowed the goal for a player distracting the goalkeeper whilst being in an offside position.
Replays showed that all players were clearly onside with a Lions defender directly in the assistant’s line of vision returning to play following the challenge from Zabala.
It’s been one of those seasons so far, with a debatable red card in the first game against Brisbane City kicking off a string of results which haven’t reflected how well the emerging Roar talent have been playing and resulting in only two points from four games played.
After the game, coach Chris Grossmann was understandably disappointed with the outcome.
“Our boys deserved at least a point today so it’s very disappointing to have it taken away from them in this cruel manner,” he stated.
“I felt we were gaining the ascendancy when the goal was disallowed, and this would have swung the momentum our way.”
“Lions are a side full of players who know how to win,” he continued “so credit to our boys for searching until fulltime for a deserved equalizer that just wasn’t to be.”
“We’ll build on that performance as we head into the massive game against Olympic on Sunday.”
With almost a full complement of players available and star fullback Zahi Addis only a couple of weeks away from a return from injury, the Roar have every right to feel confident against an Olympic team currently sitting in one of the relegation spots.
Whilst it’s all about the team for this young squad, special mention deserves to be made of the performance by Damon Gorrel, Cher Deng and Trent Millard who were excellent in this game and throughout the season so far.
In the Under 23’s, Brisbane made light work of the Grand Final replay, beating Lions 6-1 with goals coming from Nathan Nguyen (3), Arthur Da Lima, Fernando Nash and Deegan Brook.
Brisbane Roar will face Olympic FC this Sunday in Round 5 at 7:15pm AEST at AJ Kelly Park, with the U23s kicking off at 5:00pm AEST.
