30 Dec Roar hold off Adelaide

10 Man Brisbane Roar have held off a fast finishing Adelaide United with a 2-1 win tonight at Coopers Stadium.

Brisbane looked to be in trouble when Matt Mckay got sent off for a stomping incident on Nikola Mileusnic in the 47th minute.

Adelaide looked dominant early through Nathan Kostandopoulos, Nikola Mileusnic and George Blackwood all having good opportunities to open the scoring.

Poor defending from United gifted Brisbane the first goal of the game through midfielder Fahid Ben Khalfallah in the 33rd minute.

Roar striker Massimo Maccarone gave Brisbane a 0-2 lead heading into Half Time after another mistake from the Reds defence, and the home side looked in trouble.

Controversy happened two minutes before the end of the half, after an incident involving Nikola Mileusnic and Roar captain Matt McKay.

McKay originally given a yellow card for his indiscretion on Mileusnic. Upon further inspection from the VAR, they deemed it dangerous and the referee sends off the Brisbane captain seconds before the end of Half Time.

The Reds had 21 balls inside their area to 4 for the entire Second Half, but Adelaide squandered a handful of opportunities to break their deadlock.

It took an assist from Mileusnic into the direction of George Blackwood to get the first goal of the game for Marco Kurz’s men in the 69th minute.

Both John Aloisi and Marco Kurz both got yellow cards in the second half for dissent outside their boxes.

Adelaide had momentum heading into the last 6 minutes of the contest, and through the returning Johan Absalonsen failed to get it past Roar defender Luke DeVere.

Brisbane hold off the Reds, and get the three points away from home. They head back home to take on the Western Sydney Wanderers at Suncorp on Friday night.

Meanwhile Adelaide United have to travel West to take on Perth Glory on the same night as the Roar, with kickoff beginning 10pm AEDT.