Roar snatch draw with Jets after horror week

Brisbane Roar put aside a week of drama to claim an important point in a 2-2 draw with the Newcastle Jets.

Eric Bautheac, who scored the equaliser for the Roar, looks for support. Picture: AAP

Brisbane Roar put aside a week of drama to claim an important point in a 2-2 draw with the Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium last night.

The Queenslanders showed tremendous spirit to come from behind with Frenchman Eric Bautheac grabbing a late equaliser. The result comes just five days after John Aloisi stood down as Roar coach and three days after they fell 2-1 to Sydney FC.

Newcastle will be kicking themselves for throwing away three competition points after dominating the first half but failing to take their chances in what has become a familiar story.

Dimi Petratos had given the hosts a 1-0 lead at the break. However, the visitors levelled through Adam Taggart in the 65th minute.

That jolted the home side and they responded quickly with Roy O’Donovan putting them ahead just two minutes later for his second goal in as many games. You would have expected the Jets side to go on with the job but they didn’t count on the pluck of the visitors.

It is a costly result for the Jets, who would have jumped to within a point of the top six had they won.

The Jets could easily have had more goals at halftime but for Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young, who made at least three crucial saves as the home side put the visitors under enormous pressure.

It took Newcastle just six minutes to open the scoring after a terrible defensive mistake. Jacob Pepper’s misdirected pass was pounced on by Petratos on the edge of the penalty area. He skipped past two defenders before coolly slipping the ball past Young.

It was one way traffic in the first half as the Jets attacked in waves.

Petratos was denied in the 15th minute when Young made a great save with his legs before the Newcastle attacker sent a fierce free kick crashing against the crossbar in the 33rd minute.

Jason Hoffman got in the act twice in five minutes, first sending a curling shot just over the bar before having a first time effort blocked by Young.

To their credit, the visitors regrouped in the second half, eventually equalising through Taggart in the 65th minute.

The lead was short lived with O’Donovan poking the ball home from close range just two minutes later after a mad scramble in the Roar penalty area before Bautheac squared the match up with three minutes remaining.