Western Sydney attacker Brandon Borrello believes A-League Men referees need to be more vigilant punishing “atrocious” time-wasting tactics after his side was held to a 2-2 draw with Brisbane Roar.
Borrello fired the Wanderers ahead twice inside the opening 21 minutes of Saturday’s fixture, only for the hosts to quickly cough up equalisers after each goal, leaving the scores deadlocked at halftime.
With his job under pressure amid a winless start to the season, Ruben Zadkovich sent the Roar out in a deep defensive block in a plodding second half, one the Wanderers showed few signs of having the means to unlock.
These defensive tactics were supplemented by the visitors increasingly going down and taking extra time off the clock at CommBank Stadium, drawing the ire of a frustrated Borrello.
“You saw what happened in the second half,” the Socceroo told Network Ten.
“It's a part of football, and you can't take it away from Brisbane, they were smart in that sense; they frustrated the hell out of us.
“That's where ... the referees need to be a little bit more vigilant with that, and I may be calling them out, but that was atrocious today.
“You can hand out a few yellows. It's a part of the game, it's a part of the rules for time-wasting - either add it on or send them off.”
With his side 10th on the table after the draw, Wanderers boss Alen Stajcic was circumspect.
“That's football,'' he told Ten.
"I've been in Asia plenty where I've seen that and worse.
“That's up to the referee to control that part, you can only control what you do.”
Able to move level on points with sixth-placed Wellington with a win, the Wanderers took the lead after 10 minutes when Borrello headed home from the second phase of a free kick.
Entering as one of the league's highest-scoring teams but also among its most defensively porous, the all-or-nothing nature of the Wanderers soon came to the fore.
Gabriel Cleur turned the ball into his own net attempting to clear a Ben Halloran cross three minutes after the opener, and Thomas Waddingham made it 2-2 10 minutes after a "knuckleball-style" free kick from Borrello restored the lead.
"(The point is) really good for us,” Waddingham said.
“Not just for the table, but also for our mental state. Hopefully we can build from that.”
