Brisbane Roar coach Warren Moon has reiterated that his side need to bring in reinforcements in the January transfer window, after falling to a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Newcastle Jets on Friday night.
Jaushua Sotirio’s 52nd-minute goal broke the deadlock after the Roar held out in the first half at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Beka Mikeltadze struck minutes after Trent Buhagiar to make it 3-0 to the Jets, with Archie Goodwin’s injury-time sealer putting on a bow on the Jets’ best performance of the season.Â
Statistically one of the league’s stoutest defences coming into the fixture, the Roar were able to frustrate their opponents throughout the opening stanza but a moment of brilliance from Jets’ creative fulcrum Reno Piscopo split them and opened the door for Sotirio.
Now scoreless in their last 270 minutes of football, the Roar attempted to lift their intensity in search of a leveller but were promptly opened up on the counter as they fell to their heaviest defeat of the season.
Moon has spoken at length for the past few weeks that his Brisbane side need to be active in the January transfer window after losing star striker Charlie Austin and young attacker Cyrus Dehmie – while Japanese midfielder Riku Danzaki has travelled to the UK ahead of an impending move to Scottish side Motherwell.
So far, the Roar have signed Austrian midfielder Marcel Canadi and youngster Ayom Majok – who both came off the bench on Friday night – but Moon wants more players to join his squad before the window shuts.
“The better team won, for sure,” Roar coach Warren Moon admitted to Paramount+
“Four second-half goals and three of them were so poorly defended by us.
“It’s difficult to take right now and we have to look at that.
“We’re massively disappointed as a group, this is not good enough for our fans and we need to regroup quickly.
We need players, we need a striker… and I think we need a bit more squad depth as well.
Now three games undefeated, it was coach Arthur Papas’ side’s first win at home in five attempts and lifted them from 11th on the table to ninth – only held out of the playoff places on goal difference.
The Jets have struggled to replicate the entertaining and attacking football they demonstrated in 2021-22 but with the narrative of their season potentially shifting off the back of a 45-minute blitz, Georgian star Mikeltadze urged the fans to rally behind the team.
“Every game is now like a final because every team is close, every team is on 17 or 14 points, so for us, every game is a final,” he told Paramount+
“When we don’t play perfect, everyone talks bulls**t.
“Now maybe everyone will start talking good.
“We need fans, we need our supporters when we have bad times.
“When we have good times, win games and everything is ok we need fans, but we need fans when we have bad times.”
