Brisbane Roar striker Henrique’s late strike salvaged a home draw with leaders Perth Glory but did little to hide the work new coach Franz Thijssen has to do if he is to turn the A-League champions’ season around.
Brazilian Henrique took a through-ball from Corey Brown on his chest four minutes from time and turned Scott Jamieson before coolly slotting past Daniel Vukovic, to cancel out Dino Djulbic’s first-half strike for Perth.
Moments later Henrique had a great chance to give the Roar victory when he just failed to get under control substitute Mensur Kurtisi’s low ball across the six-yard box.
The late drama camouflaged a disappointing performance from the hosts in the first game of the post-Mike Mulvey era, where the problems that have dogged Brisbane in the 2014-15 season remained as they failed to turn their possession advantage into goals.
Although conceding his side were under pressure in the last third of the match, Glory coach Kenny Lowe summed up the toothless nature of the Roar.
“I was chatting to Griffo (Rostyn Griffiths), Dino (Djilbuc) and (Michael Thwaite) and they just said they were just so comfortable,” Lowe said.
Asked to embroider on the Roar’s issues Lowe was typically blunt.
“They’re just lacking (Besart) Berisha. They’re doing everything else, they’re keeping the ball, moving the ball, getting up to the 18 (yard box),” Lowe said.
“They just need a big horrible centre forward who munches people and scores goals.”
Thomas Broich should have put Brisbane in front in the second minute when he hit straight at Vukovic from the edge of the box after young left back Brown, in his first game of the season, cleverly pulled the ball back to him.
Two minutes later, Henrique was inches from scoring a sensational goal.
Fed by Broich on the wing, he slalomed inside beating four men before firing at goal with his effort flicking the bar on way over.
In the 20th minute, Djulbic outmuscled Matt Smith before volleying home Nebojsa Marinkovic’s corner into the roof of the net from eight yards out.
After promising so much in the early stages, Brisbane fell away in the latter half of the first half and even more so after the interval.
Moments after the 13,043 at Suncorp Stadium crowd rose to salute the late Phillip Hughes as the clock struck 63 minutes, Andy Keogh should have doubled the visitors’ lead but he headed Scott Jamieson’s corner just wide of the Roar goal. It was a miss his side would rue.
“It’s positive that the group showed fight to come back,” Thiessen said.
“We had to settle for 1-1 and I can live with that.”
The point takes Glory one clear of Melbourne Victory at the top of the ladder, while Brisbane remain third-bottom with four points.
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