Brisbane Roar manager Darren Davies says his side must learn from their 2-1 win over Wellington Phoenix as they look ahead to next season.
A double from Eric Bautheac just before halftime sealed a memorable result for the Roar at Suncorp Stadium in what has been a miserable campaign.
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It could have been a different story for the home side however with Mandi, David Williams and Cillian Sheridan all going close for the Nix late on.
Davies said post-match that despite their luck his team deserved the win.
“Sometimes you can learn from losing games but tonight we can learn from winning games as well and learning to win a game,” he said.
“Yes they had a couple of chances late on, I understand that and acknowledge it, we did the other way as well so we could have nicked a couple in the second half as well.
“Overall emotion is proud of the players, we’ve had three teenagers in the starting 11, two 21-year olds up top and the subs are all 21 and under as well...we’ll keep on going to the end and tonight was an example of that.”
The Roar enjoyed a dominant opening 45 minutes before the visitors found their groove with a string of chances.
Davies, in charge until the end of the season, said his inexperienced side had to battle for the three points.
“I thought we were excellent first half and I thought to be honest we should have been a couple more up,” he said.
“Their keeper’s pulled off a world class save in the first 10 minutes. We spoke about coming out the same in the second half but they scored a good goal….and playing with a lot of young players out there, it’s a massive learning curve for them tonight.”
No panic stations for Nix
While a loss against the side ranked ninth on the Hyundai A-League ladder was always going to be disappointing for the finals-bound Nix, for it to come after a poor result against Adelaide United the week before is enough to make fans slightly nervous.
That feeling is not shared by manager Mark Rudan however, who called for calm after consecutive losses on the road.
“What we’ve done is raise expectations at the football club with our fans,” Rudan explained post-match.
“All the pundits at the start of the year said we’d be finishing with a wooden spoon so I think this is the time to reflect with two games to go.
“Let’s be honest here, it’s been a remarkable season all in all. You’ve got to take the good with the bad and upon reflection you need to put things into context, we're sitting fourth.”
