Soccer: Roar power into record books

The Roar have gone 35 games without a loss. Photo / Getty Images

Home advantage counted for plenty in round eight A-League action.

Four of the five games - including the record-breaking effort by Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium - were won by the home team.

The other, between Adelaide United and Newcastle Jets, produced a scoreless draw.

The attention was all on the Roar in their attempt to set a record for the longest unbeaten stretch in any Australian sport.

They went into the match equal with Eastern Suburbs who, 74 years earlier, had gone 35 games without a loss in the New South Wales Rugby League competition.

If there were any nerves about chasing such a record they certainly were not with the Brisbane players.

From the outset they produced another master-class performance for their coach Ange Postecoglou with Besart Berisha and Issey Nakajima-Farran leading the way. The livewire pair ended their night with two goals each.

The first goal was 23 minutes in arriving. By the end they had stretched it to 4-0 leaving hapless Perth Glory with nothing but further disappointment as their slide down the table continued.

After sharing the lead with Brisbane on nine points after three rounds in a perfect start to the season, the Glory have had none of that in picking up just one point from their past five games to now be 10 points out of the lead in sixth place.

While the glory was with the Roar, the drama again came from Melbourne Victory in the last game of the round.

Playing Gold Coast United at AAMI Park, the Victory were awarded a penalty after just 35secs. Harry Kewell promptly beat Glen Moss in the United goal.

Fast forward 22 minutes, another penalty and this time Carlo Hernandez planted the ball just beyond Moss' despairing dive.

The yellow cards were already being flashed by referee Kris Griffiths-Jones when he changed from yellow to red in the 33rd minute to send the Victory's Rody Vargas packing for a two-footed tackle.

The home side were back in familiar territory, playing with less than their full complement.

Those woes deepened right on halftime when Griffiths-Jones pointed to the other penalty spot and substitute Dylan Macallister banged the ball home for 2-1. And, almost as quickly after the break, Peter Jungschlager tied it up at 2-2.

The Victory then lost influential defender Fabio who limped off with what appeared to be a serious ankle injury.

But, as they have done before and not wanting to play out their sixth draw in eight matches, the home side continued to press and were rewarded 11 minutes from time when Hernandez bagged the winner.

At the end of the game, Griffiths-Jones had nine names in his notebook with the visitors having five booked.

Melbourne Heart, who host the Phoenix on Sunday, lost 3-1 away to Central Coast Mariners in a game in which three goals were scored in the last 11 minutes.

The Heart and Phoenix go into their ninth-round meeting equal on points and with a nil goal difference.