Roar stun Melbourne City 5-1 in record ALM turnaround

Brisbane Roar have stunned Melbourne City 5-1 in an A-League Men turnaround for the ages, after conceding eight the last time the two sides met.

City's 8-1 thumping of the Roar in December led to the firing of acting Brisbane coach Luciano Trani, but the boot was firmly on the other foot at Suncorp Stadium.

The 11-goal turnaround between the games surpassed the previous record of nine, also achieved by Brisbane who followed up a 4-0 loss to Melbourne Victory in January 2016 by beating the same opponents 5-0 two months later.

Kai Trewin heads his goal agaqinst Melbourne City.
Kai Trewin rises to give Brisbane the perfect start after two minutes against Melbourne City.

Wave after wave of orange blew the visitors off the park on Saturday.

The Roar had four goals inside the opening 39 minutes - Kai Trewin scoring for the first time in 95 ALM appearances before Tom Waddingham, Jay O'Shea and Keegan Jelacic made it 4-0.

Waddingham added his second a minute after the halftime break.

Acting head coach Ruben Zadkovich, who took over from the unwell Ben Cahn last week, had the Roar back playing the kind of football they did at the start of the season when they were in the top four.

"We were really clinical in front of goal and I was really proud of the effort areas and the non-negotiables that we spoke about this week ... and making sure we represent our fans and members the right way, because they have been through a lot," Zadkovich  said.

"The credit belongs to the players and the staff."

City's own campaign is on the slide with Saturday's loss their fourth in five matches. 

"We have been training really well over the last weeks so it is quite a shock," coach Aurelio Vidmar said of his side's display.

"We just weren’t competitive. We conceded a couple of early goals, hit a bit of adversity and didn’t respond too well to it. 

"Full credit to Brisbane. They took advantage."

Brisbane had the perfect start, with Trewin breaking his ALM goal drought inside two minutes.

Skipper O'Shea fired in a corner that was headed on by Jelacic for Trewin to head home at the far post.

It was the first time City had conceded from a corner all season.

Roar's Thomas Waddingham celebrates one of his goals v Melbourne City.
Roar delight: Tom Waddingham celebrates a goal in Brisbane's 5-1 ALM thumping of Melbourne City.

It was 2-0 after half an hour, when Nikola Meleusnic sent in a perfect cross from the right and the powerful Waddingham tucked the ball into the back of the net. 

O'Shea let rip with a left-footer from outside the box for his seventh goal of the season in the 33rd minute, before Jelacic did exactly the same with his right foot six minutes later to leave City punch-drunk at 4-0. 

After the break, Brisbane continued where they had left off, Waddingham dispossessing Curtis Good before firing a cracking left-footer into the back of the net. 

City hit back in the 73rd minute through Terry Antonis but it was too little too late.

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