Football
AAP 7y

Brosque proud Sydney FC 'showed a bit of fight' in contentious Big Blue win

Captain Alex Brosque has labelled Sydney FC's contentious 2-1 Big Blue triumph over Melbourne Victory the test of character they needed and the A-League leaders' most valuable win yet.

Brosque is also backing referee Chris Beath for letting Saturday's spiteful contest flow at Allianz Stadium, arguing his own reckless first-half challenge wasn't grounds for dismissal.

The Sky Blues win offered up plenty of controversy.

David Carney's blatant handball just before netting Sydney's equaliser -- and then the winner -- stole much of the spotlight but there were other moments that could have gone either way.

Brosque himself copped a yellow card card for his sliding tackle on Leigh Broxham, which was potentially worthy of a red.

While admitting it was careless, the forward felt a send-off would have been severe particularly in such a big fixture and where there was no malice.

"It probably looked worse than what it was," Brosque told AAP.

"I slid in for the ball and I get that it was from behind but I would have been very surprised if I'd been sent off.

"It was a yellow but a straight red for that in a big game like the Big Blue?

"You can probably be a little bit more lenient in games like this one -- it's just good refereeing."

Brosque reckoned Victory also benefited from the officiating, suggesting Filip Holosko's clumsy foul gave Victory a soft penalty - though he could hardly believe Besart Berisha's wild miss.

"The penalty for me, they say he was holding his shirt but again, there's players holding shirts all the time," Brosque said.

"Because he goes down it's a penalty.

"There were a couple of decisions that went for us, a couple that went against us.

"I think Chris did well. There were some tough ones.

"I didn't see Carney's handball either until I saw the replay."

Though Sydney conceded their first goal of the season the result means Graham Arnold's side extend their competition lead to five points.

"It's the first time we've been behind this year, the first time we've had to show a bit of fight," Brosque said.

"We read a lot of stuff in the media this week that we hadn't beaten them in nine games and in the first half the way we played wasn't great.

"But even 1-0 down I always felt we could come back."

^ Back to Top ^