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Brisbane extends unbeaten A-League run to 35 games

20 November 2011 00:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Brisbane rallied from a goal down to beat Newcastle 2-1 and to extend its unbeaten run to 35 games in football’s A-League, equalling the longest winning streak in Australian club sport on Saturday, APA reports.

Newcastle took a 1-0 lead to halftime after a 45th-minute goal to Ryan Griffith but Brisbane equalized through Henrique in the 56th and sealed its fifth win in seven matches this season with an 83rd-minute goal to substitute James Meyer.

The win allowed Brisbane to equal the 75-year-old record of Eastern Suburbs which went unbeaten through 35 matches in Australia’s National Rugby League.

In other seventh-round matches, Central Coast beat Sydney FC 3-2, Melbourne Heart beat Gold Coast 2-1 and Wellington and Adelaide drew 1-1.

Brisbane overcame the loss to international duties of Matt Jurman, Mitch Nichols and Kofi Danning to keep its unbeaten streak alive. It has the chance to secure the outright record for the longest winning run in Australian club sport when it plays Perth in round eight.

Brisbane was on the back foot for much of the first half and Griffith’s goal just before the break gave Newcastle a deserved halftime lead. Goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos kept Brisbane in the game with some superb saves before being beaten by Griffith’s low shot.

Henrique was at the far post to meet a cross from Canada international Issey Nakajima-Farran and to head home the equalizer. Meyer had been on the field for only three minutes when he scored the winner from a corner variation.

"It was a tough game coming down here and they worked very hard to stop us playing and were successful at that to a certain degree," Brisbane coach Ange Postecoglou said. "But I just thought it was a fantastic effort by the players not to give in and lose their self belief even when they were under pressure."

Last season’s finalist Central Coast held out a late rally from Sydney FC to win 3-2 and to move into second place behind Brisbane, edging Sydney on goal difference.

Goals from Patrick Zwaanswijk and Michael McGlinchey gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead before Nick Carle pulled one back for Sydney in the 77th minute.

Troy Hearfield seemed to have put the result beyond doubt when he made it 3-1 in the 82nd but Sydney rallied again with a brilliant goal from a free kick to Brett Emerton â€” his first A-League goal.

Central Coast goalkeeper Justin Pasfield made a fine late save to deny Sydney an equalizer and what would have been its fourth come-from-behind result of the season.

"The boys played great," Mariners coach Graham Arnold said. "I feel like the scoreline flattered them (Sydney). It wasn’t 3-2.

"We played good football, kept possession well and the boys carried the game plan out perfectly."

A late own goal by Nigel Boogaard gave Wellington a 1-1 draw with Adelaide in match played at Auckland’s Eden Park, venue for last month’s Rugby World Cup final. The first A-League match played by the Phoenix in New Zealand’s largest city drew 20,000 fans but failed to produce quality play.

Bruce Djite gave Adelaide a 1-0 lead after 44 minutes. Striker Paul Ifill, returning from a long injury break, came off the bench to lead Wellington’s rally, putting in the cross that lead to Boogaard’s own goal.

Argentine Jonathan Germano scored the winner as the Melbourne Heart beat Gold Coast 2-1, consigning the Coast to its third-straight defeat and to last place in the 10-team league.