The Brisbane Roar escaped with a 1-1 A-League draw against North Queensland Fury in Townsville on Saturday night.
The home side looked on track to record their maiden competition win after leading for the majority of the match however it all came unravelled for the Fury when Mitch Nichols levelled in the 84th minute.
It was Brisbane’s game for the taking after the Fury went down to 10 men when Paul Kohler was sent off for his second yellow card after 30 minutes but they showed plenty of character to lead until the dying stages.
Former Liverpool great Robbie Fowler underlined his star status when he put the Fury ahead after six minutes.
The man nicknamed God controlled a superb James Robinson cross with a deft touch before beating two defenders to score and send the crowd of 7,137 into raptures.
The Fury had a chance to go further ahead in the 10th when speedster David Williams drilled from 30 out only to see Liam Reddy guide the ball over the crossbar with a great save.
The chances were few and far between for Brisbane but as the Fury started playing for time the visitors struck when Mitch Nichols scored after deflecting a Sergio Van Dijk drive.
Kohler wasn’t the only player to earn the ire of referee Matthew Breeze who booked Brisbane’s David Dodd in the 5th minute, Charlie Miller (17th), Josh McCloughlan (70th), Henrique (81st) and Reinaldo (83rd) plus North Queensland’s midfield general Ufuk Talay (57th).
Roar coach Frank Farina was relieved his side could come away with a point after a lacklustre performance.
“We definitely stole a point tonight, we can play better than that,” he said.
“We were flat (throughout) but many teams have done it to us (and) got one where they most probably didn’t deserve it.
“It helps even up the ledger I suppose.
“We were treating the ball like a hand grenade tonight, we were almost scared to keep a hold of it.”
For Fury coach Ian Ferguson, it was another night of disappointment following a courageous performance with only ten men.
“The performance the boys put in was fantastic, gutsy,” he said.
“We worked hard, we defended well, there were a lot of positives again.
“Unfortunately you can’t do anything about the goal, it was a deflection and could’ve gone anywhere.”
Ferguson refused to lay the blame for the loss on the referee’s decision to send off Kohler.
“He (the referee) has made the decision, it has happened, he (Kohler) is off the park so there is nothing I can say about that.”
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