A-League: Brisbane Roar striker Jamie Maclaren says side can aim for championship

HAVING already matched his goal tally from last season, Brisbane marksman Jamie Maclaren is setting no limits on what he and the Roar can achieve for the remainder of the season.

HAVING already matched his goal tally from last season, Brisbane marksman Jamie Maclaren is setting no limits on what he and the Roar can achieve for the remainder of the 2015-2016 A-League campaign.

Maclaren’s brace in the Roar’s 3-1 weekend win over Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium lifted him to nine goals from 13 appearances this season.

It’s a goal-to-game ratio comparable to the two men ahead of him on the goalscoring charts 0- Melbourne City’s Bruno Fornaroli (14 from 17) and Melbourne Victory’s Besart Berisha (13 from 16).

Maclaren also scored nine goals last season for Perth and there’s little doubt he would have netted more if given more game time from Glory coach Kenny Lowe, who restricted the Australian under-23 international to just seven starts and 13 more appearances off the bench.

Having moved to Brisbane to nail down an A-League starting berth, Maclaren has repaid the faith shown in him by Roar coach John Aloisi.

His worth was proved by the Roar’s limp attacking displays during his Olyroos-enforced absence last month.

Maclaren’s return against the Sydneysiders on Saturday night paid immediate dividends for the Roar and he yesterday promised there was more to come from himself and his second-placed team.

“There are still 10 (regular season) games to go … hopefully I can get five or six more (goals), if not more,” he said.

“The boys are hungry as well … there’s no reason why we couldn’t (win the championship).

“We’ve beaten every team in the league so far except for Victory and we’re going to play them (again) in a few weeks’ time.

“We’ll just play as we normally do. We’ve won a lot of games this season and we’ll just continue that.”

Aloisi said the Roar could “beat anyone” and was anything but concerned about his team’s title hopes being written off after the heavy 4-0 and 4-1 respective losses to the Victory and Adelaide United that preceded their win over Sydney.

“Whether people talk about us, I don’t look at that because people spoke about us not being not that good in the past couple of weeks. We know what we have to improve on,” Aloisi said,

Brisbane have a golden opportunity in their next three weeks to further enhance their title bid.

The Roar’s next three opponents – Central Coast Mariners, Newcastle Jets and Perth – all currently sit outside the top six.

But Aloisi won’t let his side become complacent, particularly with the Mariners side for Saturday’s clash at Suncorp Stadium to include former Liverpool great Luis Garcia, who has made an immediate impact since has arrival in Gosford less than two weeks ago.

“He’s their X-Factor. He’s come on twice now, set up goals, scored, so he’s going to be one to watch out for,” the Brisbane coach said of Central Coast’s marquee man.

Originally published as A-League: Brisbane Roar striker Jamie Maclaren says side can aim for championship