What began as a week to remember quickly became one to forget for Craig Moore as the Brisbane Roar crashed 3-0 to Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.

Moore was positively buzzing from his recent return to the Socceroos – then he came back to Brisbane.

Upon his return, Moore found an A-League club reeling from coach Frank Farina’s sacking for a second drink driving offence.

The mood didn’t get any better after they were thrashed by the Mariners.

And Moore certainly wasn’t a happy camper after being told he would miss their next clash with Sydney FC for collecting a fifth yellow card of the season.

“It was great to get away with the national team … then come back to a nice quiet situation back here,” Moore laughed.

“But that’s football. There’s always changes, now we have a new change, a new coach.

“It’s a period where people have to prove themselves again which is no bad thing – and as you can see there is still quite a lot of work to do.”

While caretaker coach Rado Vadosic admitted to some “sleepless nights” in the fallout over Farina’s axing, Moore said they had no excuses for their dismal display.

“If that is the case (players were distracted) then it is very unprofessional – but I don’t put it down to that,” he said.

“If it is then I am pretty sure there will be certain people who won’t play week in week out.”

The most disappointed member of the 7,434-strong crowd was Farina’s replacement, ex-Young Socceroos mentor Ange Postecoglou.

Technically Postecoglou had left the reins with Vadosic for the night ahead of his official start on Monday.

But Postecoglou still addressed the players ahead of the match and headed down again from his grandstand seat at halftime.

He will no doubt have plenty more to say to his troops after their poor effort against a team that had previously only tasted victory twice at Suncorp Stadium in four seasons.

Shellshocked over Farina’s axing, Brisbane players’ heads were spinning again following the Mariners’ stunning start.

Nicky Travis made Brisbane’s ex-Rangers defender Bob Malcolm pay for some sloppy work to score in the fourth minute.

And in the 18th minute it was 2-0 after Central Coast’s Maltese international John Hutchinson waltzed past Malcolm to score.

The third goal summed up the Roar’s night.

In the 70th minute, Roar defender Luke DeVere’s errant pass found Central Coast’s Pedj Bojic who sealed the Mariners’ first win in four weeks with a wonderful finish.

“We are 2-0 down and all of a sudden we decide we want to play – that’s great isn’t it,” Moore said.

“It’s all well and good talking in the dressing room saying you are going to do this and that but it’s when you cross that white line (that counts) and we got off to the worst possible start.”

© AAP 2012

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