Brazilian striker Fabio Gomes has kept his scoring purple patch going as his resurgent Sydney FC scored a 2-1 A-League Men away win over battling Brisbane Roar.
Gomes made it four goals from three games with two first-half efforts to set up Sydney's third straight win, lifting them four places to sixth and a point ahead of Brisbane, who suffered a fourth successive loss.
The Brazilian got great support from in-form English import Joe Lolley and livewire youngster Jaiden Kucharski, who started in place of the injured Anthony Caceres.
The Roar, who were coming off an 8-1 mauling at the hands of Melbourne City and had a third head coach in as many games, were swamped early but showed plenty of fight and spirit.
Nikola Mileusnic gave Brisbane some hope in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time when he was released by a fine pass from Florin Berenguer and lashed a shot into the net.
The second half at Suncorp Stadium was a much more even affair, with Brisbane enjoying some good spells, but neither side created much in the way of clear-cut chances.
Roar captain Tom Aldred had a good opportunity in the closing seconds but stabbed a close-range shot straight at Sydney goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.
The match and tenure of new Roar coach Ben Cahn could barely have started more poorly, with his side falling behind after just 52 seconds.
Brisbane trailed after Gomes’s far-post header rewarded a delightful Kucharski cross.
The Sky Blues might have been out of sight by halftime after they hit the woodwork twice and had five attempts in the first 10 minutes alone.
Gomes struck again In the 41st minute, finding the net with an audacious back-heeled flick following a good cross from Lolley.
"We should have killed the game off in the first half with the opportunities that we created,” Sydney coach Ufuk Talay told broadcaster Paramount.
“The second half maybe not so good, at times we got picked off.
“But we really didn’t have anything that really harmed our box, so we defended quite well.”
Talay replaced the injury-prone Jack Rodwell at halftime and within three minutes of the second half also lost Robert Mak
Mileusnic’s strike infused Brisbane with greater belief but they couldn’t grab an equaliser against a Sydney side that didn’t regularly reproduce the dangerous transition game that troubled Roar in the first half.
“They delivered everything we asked at halftime apart from the goal that was going to get us at least a point,” Cahn said.
"We lacked a bit of quality, and we certainly lacked a bit of end product and box entry.
“But in terms of a starting point from where we were last week, it’s really good progress and it’s something to build on.”
