Melbourne Heart survived a scare as they moved back in to the playoff places thanks to a 3-2 win over Brisbane Roar at AAMI Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The win restores their fortunes after slumping to last place just two weeks ago and fans will hoping signals an upswing in form in the new year after their first back-to-back wins in 11 months.
Brisbane Roar got off to a good start with a Thomas Broich corner in the fifth minute finding Erik Paartalu who headed towards goal but was denied by Andrew Redmayne’s palm.
Brisbane dominated the early stages but still Melbourne Heart took the lead in the 13th minute as a flowing move ended with Richard Garcia passing for David Williams on the left who was able to run in and shot in to the bottom corner of the net for the opener.
In the 35th minute Heart doubled their lead as Michael Marrone made a powerful run down the right and past Paartalu before releasing Josip Tadic who easily scored, that may have been helped by the fact the striker was in an offside position but the flag stayed down as Heart made it 2-0 at the break.
In the 53rd minute it became 3-0 as a Redmayne goal kick was met by Williams who held off the defense allowing Aziz Behich to claim possession and cross to Fred who easily tapped home the goal.
But in the 67th minute all Heart’s work looked like coming undone as Williams turned to villain for a vicious challenge on Ivan Franjic that was a clear red card offense, reducing Heart to ten men.
Just moments after the red card Matt Smith had a good opportunity to pull one back for the Roar but his header skewed wide before Fred fouled Halloran in the box allowing Besarat Berisha to step up and put away a goal that put Brisbane back in the match
Two minutes later Berisha lit a fire under Heart as he scored a second with a nice finish after being put through by Broich.
Brisbane huffed and puffed through the final ten minutes but were still unable to find a goal as Heart were able to hold on for a valuable 3-2 victory.
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