By Wayne Heming
November 30th 2009 @ 6:29am
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Roar thump Phoenix 4-1
Rookie referee Alan Milliner made a controversial start to his A-League career as Brisbane downed Wellington Phoenix 4-1 at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night.
Milliner, handling his first A-League game in his home city, was not in Wellington coach Ricki Herbert’s good books after sending Phoenix defender Manny Muscat off in the 57th minute for violent conduct in raising his elbow at Roar teenager Tommy Oar.
If Muscat was surprised to see Milliner pull out a red card, Herbert appeared stunned when asked about the incident that will go to the match review committee on Monday.
“I’ve got quite a strong opinion on it and I guess we’ll channel that through the right areas,” said Herbert when asked about the sending off.
When asked it he was unhappy about he replied: “Do you think I should be?”
Herbert and Phoenix skipper Andrew Durante felt the dismissal, which replays seem to support, turned the game with the visitors unable to keep pace with Brisbane when reduced to 10 men.
“We were well in the game with a lot of opportunities but we got behind the eight ball after the send off,” said Herbert.
Durante said there was no question the decision impacted on the result with the score 2-1 in Brisbane’s favour at the time.
“We had a tough game in the heat last week (against Newcastle) and to play in the heat again and to go to 10 men, I thought we were right in the game until that point before fatigue started to set in.”
Wellington created a lot of chances but Brisbane always seemed to be in control with Brazilian Reinaldo scoring twice, firstly in the 17th minute when he celebrated with a string of backflips, and again in the 56th minute, just before the Muscat incident.
In between, Wellington striker Chris Greenacre headed home in the 26th minute, set up by a short corner by Daniel Cortez and a chip from Leo Bertos.
Roar striker Sergio Van Dijk rifled home his 20th goal in 39 games in front of the club’s smallest ever crowd (6,307) to make it 3-1 before late substitute David Dodd iced the win in the first minute of stoppage time.
Socceroo defender and Roar skipper Craig Moore earned high praise from Postecoglou for taking the field despite feeling sick.
“Moorie was fantastic tonight, he was really crook mate at half time and somebody else wouldn’t have even come out but he led from the front.
“He just wasn’t well. He was throwing up at half time, you could just see he was struggling.
“I kept telling him to take it easy and he kept throwing himself into things.
“We you see your captain do stuff like that, it lifts your whole playing group.
“We had quite a few tired bodies out there but nobody was going to stop when they saw their captain doing it so tough.”
Postecoglou sprang a surprise handing Adam Sarota his first game, leaving tough nut Danny Tiatto on the bench.
“I wanted to mix it up in the middle and get some energy and enthusiasm and I thought he did that,” the coach said of Sarota.
“When he gets confident he’ll be quite a threat because he runs at people and when you get a player who does that, it’s a good weapon to have.”
AAP wh/gjw
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Chook said | November 30th 2009 @ 10:22am | Report comment
Who ever thought that a bloke by the name of Muscat would be sent off for violent conduct.??
Tiatto on the bench was probably the smartest move Posta has doen so far. He is currently is poor form on last home match.
Good to see Oar playing well, cant see him playing for the Roar much longer.