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Brisbane Roar have missed another chance to move ahead in the battle for third spot on the A-League ladder after an upset 2-1 defeat to Wellington Phoenix.
Despite dropping three players — including key import Roly Bonevacia — for breaching team standards, the Phoenix were in perfect harmony on Saturday as they took full advantage of a flat and depleted Roar outfit.
The victory is Wellington's first after three consecutive defeats, only its second ever at Lang Park, and sees them leapfrog Newcastle into seventh spot ahead of Sunday's F3 Derby.
Brisbane welcomed back skipper Matt McKay and Thomas Kristensen from injury but it appeared their recent heavy schedule finally caught up with them in front of 10,723 fans.
The Roar had the same amount of shots on goal as the Phoenix but the best of their chances were either blocked by defenders or snuffed out by gloveman Glen Moss.
Wearing number 99, veteran striker Shane Smeltz opened the scoring with his 99th national league goal just after the half-hour mark, stunning a flat-footed Roar defence.
Smeltz drifted from his marker and headed a perfect Adam Parkhouse cross straight into the bottom corner, giving goalkeeper Michael Theo no chance.
Roy Krishna made it 2-0 in the 61st minute, sweeping in a cutback from Kosta Barbarouses.
The in-form Brandon Borrello got one back for Brisbane with a wicked curling shot from the edge of the box in the 75th minute but, despite a late rally, could not find an equaliser.
AAP
Topics: a-league, soccer, sport, brisbane-4000, qld, australia