Jay O’Shea has carried new boss Ben Cahn to his first win in charge of the Brisbane Roar, scoring twice in a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Newcastle Jets.
O’Shea sealed the win for the Roar - their first in five games - with a 90th minute penalty at Allianz Stadium on Sunday in the final game of the A-League’s inaugural Unite Round.
Dane Ingham’s handball gave O’Shea the opportunity to convert and he calmly slotted it home for a win which moves the Roar to eighth spot on the A-League Men table.
The fightback the Roar showed would have heartened Cahn after a drab opening half when his side barely threatened the Jets.
"We can’t shy away from the fact that the first half was poor," Cahn said.
“With what everyone has been through over the past few weeks, we had to find a way to win and the boys showed immense character today.
“I’m very happy, obviously my job is to look at the performance and the reality is two weeks in a row we could have been 4-0 or 5-0 down in the first half.
“That's my concern at the moment, we've got a big job ahead of us."
Newcastle’s latest capitulation left Jets boss Rob Stanton frustrated because for the second week in a row the Jets have taken an early lead, looked impressive and then lost their way.
"It shows where we're at," said Stanton.
"It showed we need to manage games better, and we didn't know how to manage the game well and we paid the price.
"You get to a stage where you gas out because you're not used to being a dominant team and we're still in phases of learning lessons and we got taught one today."
It all started so well for the Jets when Apostolos Stamatelopoulos buried the ball past Macklin Freke in the 17th minute.
Trent Buhagiar had a goal chalked off and Brisbane lost influential Frenchman Florin Berengeur to a suspected groin injury.
Newcastle were knocking on the door, with Kosta Grozos rattling the post just before halftime and a strike by Buhagiar bouncing clear and over the bar.
But their failure to convert when it mattered came back to bite them when O’Shea went on a jinking run and drew the Roar level with a low-driven shot in the 62nd minute.
Newcastle hit back almost instantly when Freke fumbled a corner and Phillip Cancar bundled the ball into the Roar net.
But each time the Roar went forward Newcastle looked nervous, and from a corner Jonas Markovski was able to prod the ball over the line to set up a grandstand finish.
When Ingham was penalised for handball, O'Shea was the man to step up, dispatching the ball past Jets No.1 Ryan Scott to seal the victory.
