BRISBANE: The Brisbane Roar scored two goals in the first half to stun Sydney FC 2-1 as the A-League leaders' late-season form slump continued on the weekend.
Brisbane put themselves in finals contention with the win and also gave second-placed Newcastle some hope of overhauling Sydney in the race for the championship.
Newcastle beat the Wellington Phoenix 1-0 in Wellington to close to within five points of Sydney with four rounds of the regular season remaining.
Brisbane, who had a disastrous start to the season with injuries to a host of key players, are enjoying a good spell and took a deserved 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes after taking advantage of some poor set piece defending.
Matt McKay opened the scoring with a glancing header following an Eric Bautheac corner before Jacob Pepper fired home from an Ivan Franjic cross.
Milos Ninkovic headed home to get Sydney back to 2-1 with 30 minutes to go but Brisbane held firm to take the three points.
"A lot of our players, especially our front four, are now starting to find real form, but I was really happy with our defensive performance," Brisbane coach John Aloisi said.
"Until their goal we actually shut them down pretty well and they didnt really create much.
"They got a bit of a lift from their goal but we held on in the end."
Newcastle were forced to fight hard to see off Wellington, who were much improved in their second outing under caretaker coach Chris Greenacre.
Jason Hoffman scored the only goal in the 43rd minute when he drove into the box and, after his initial attempt was blocked, fired home a follow-up volley.
In other matches, Western Sydney Wanderers and Perth Glory played out a 1-1 draw in Sydney, as did Adelaide United and Melbourne City in Adelaide.
Kosovo international Besart Berisha scored a hat-trick as the Melbourne Victory outclassed bottom-placed Central Coast 5-2 in Melbourne.
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