Now Its A Slump

Four losses on the trot and I think that it is safe to say that Brisbane Roar are now officially in a slump.  What could have been a minor stumble has now extended into record losing run and the big question is now how do the boys get out of this.  More of that later, for now lets have a look at last night's game.

Our opponent for the night was Central Coast Mariners in a fixture dubbed a grand final rematch. In the opening minutes Roar looked sharp and had the Mariners on the back foot.  But then we gave them an early goal and in mind numbingly stupid fashion.  From a free kick on the edge of our box, Michael Theoklitos ignored easy passes both Mohamad Adnan and Matt Jurman and instead attempt to thread a pass to Erik Paartalu.  He succeeded in doing nothing more than passing straight Mustafa Amini and the youngster smashed one home of the crossbar.  Talk about coach killers.  From that point Brisbane were in trouble as the Mariners were able keep their defence organised and Roar were forced to chase the game.  Mariners then put the final nail in the coffin when they counter attacked from a Jurman turnover and Pedj Bojic doubled the lead.  Ange rang the changes through the second half and Roar put the Mariners under a lot of pressure but couldn't pull off the a result.  Kofi Danning saw his maiden goal for the club deflect in, but it was scant consolation after another poor result.

So where do the Roar go from here?  Well the first big issue is the injuries.  Not only are we missing a number of key players but we're also limited in our options now.  I think a few guys may be playing injured as well which can't be helping.  But our big issue is that we continue to give up early leads and then can't chase sides down.  It has to stop happening.  Especially when your keeper passes the straight to one of their players for the opener.

There were some positives in the play last night though.  I thought Jack Hingert's performance off the bench was very good and Big Mo was very good at the back.  Also I thought Issey had one of his better games for us.

Our next fixture is the boxing day derby against Gold Coast.  It now looms as a must win clash.