Brisbane Roar midfielder Jay O’Shea scores for the sixth game in a row
Not since the great Besart Berisha has a Brisbane Roar player scored in six consecutive games – until now.
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Irish midfielder Jay O’Shea became the first Roar player to score in six successive games since the great Besart Berisha but Brisbane’s A-League finals hopes hang by a thread after a 2-2 draw with Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
Desperate for a win at Eden Park in the battle for a top-six berth, the Roar at least managed to salvage a point thanks to a late Scott Neville equaliser
But with just two rounds of the regular season remaining, Brisbane will now have to rely on other results, as well as their own, to have any chance of playing finals football.
Roar captain Tom Aldred said his side would “continue to believe”.
“By not winning today we’ve probably taken it out of our own hands,” Aldred told Sky Sport New Zealand.
“We probably need a lot of our results to go our way, but while we’re still in the (finals) fight, we’ll continue to still hopefully push.
“We definitely need two wins out of our two (matches), and we’ll see what happens.”
The afternoon started well for the Roar, who took the lead in just the eighth minute from the penalty spot after the Phoenix’s Brazilian midfielder Yan Sasse fouled Brisbane attacker Jez Lofthouse.
O’Shea calmly slotted the spot kick home to score his ninth goal of the season and match the efforts of Berisha from the 2011-12 season when the A-League legend found the back of the net in six straight matches.
However, Lofthouse later became the villain when his foul on David Ball led to the Phoenix equalising from the spot in the 35th minute.
Oskar Zawada was the scorer, with the Polish marksman netting his 14th of what has been a memorable debut A-League season.
Jan Sasse gave the Phoenix in the 56th minute after a clever build-up that involved Zawada and former Roar star Kosta Barbarouses.
The woodwork was then to come to Brisbane’s rescue in the 70th and 71st minutes, with Phoenix forward David Ball denied by the post three times, including twice from the same shot.
The Roar made the most of their good fortune, with veteran defender Neville heading home an 82nd-minute corner from O’Shea to ensure the points were shared.
Aldred said Wellington’s first-half penalty “killed” the Roar and that it was a “poor” decision by referee Stephen Lucas to award the hosts the spot kick.
“I don’t want to comment too much on referees but for me he wanted to even the game up,” the Brisbane skipper said.
Originally published as Brisbane Roar midfielder Jay O’Shea scores for the sixth game in a row