More home comforts for Roar

Jamie Maclaren’s goal continued Brisbane Roar’s excellent home record as they beat Melbourne City 1-0 to go second in the A-League table. Maclaren’s early strike settled the issue at Suncorp Stadium, where the Roar are now unbeaten in their last 10 games.

Their win over John van ‘t Schip’s side was their eighth in Brisbane during that spell, and they rarely looked like surrendering their advantage. City didn’t muster a shot on goal in the entire 90 minutes.

The visitors had large spells of possession in the first half but couldn’t break down a well-organised Brisbane defence.

We have to look at is how can we improve, and do things better against teams that are not giving a lot of space away.

John van ‘t Schip

Maclaren could have added to his tally as the game became stretched in the second half, with City looking for an equaliser.

His goal came after 11 minutes when a neat interchange between Thomas Broich and Brett Holman created danger.

Tommy Oar got in behind the City defence and the winger’s touch around keeper Dean Bouzanis fell to Maclaren who buried his shot into an empty net for his second goal of the campaign.

Van ‘t Schip admitted not enough of his players contributed against an in-form Roar side.

“It’s a work in progress, what we’re doing,” said the coach. “There was a lot of good passes again, a lot of play that looked good but I think maybe we had too many players not really having their best day.

“Unfortunately tonight it didn’t work out for us but it doesn’t mean that we try to change our philosophy.

“What we have to look at is how can we improve, and do things better against teams that are not giving a lot of space away.”

Melbourne City are 1/2 to win their next game against Newcastle Jets, who are 5/1 with the draw 10/3.