Roar will fight to end, vows Postecoglou

A frustrated Ange Postecoglou slammed suggestions it was time to start planning for
next season after Brisbane's 1-0 loss to Melbourne Victory at Suncorp Stadium kept
them on the bottom of A-League ladder.
Brisbane, sitting on 16 points after 15 games, are hardly shot ducks, only a win
behind fifth placed Perth Glory (18 points) with 12 games to play.
Nobody was more critical of the Roar's "self inflicted" loss to a defensive Victory
on Saturday night than Postecoglou.
But the former two-time NSL premiership winning coach with South Melbourne who
replaced Frank Farina last month, bristled when asked if it could be time to start
looking towards next season with Brisbane who are one point off the bottom of the
ladder.
"That would be a huge, huge cop out," fired an offended Postecoglou, tough defender
who played 193 games for South Melbourne and four for the Socceroos.
"That would be so nice, wouldn't it?
"We could all sit back... but you know what, punters are still paying their hard
earned and I'm not writing away anything and the players won't be allowed to either.
"I'd be surprised if that was their philosophy.
"We're pretty privileged we're employed in a pretty good industry and we have a
responsibility to front up and play and I'm certainly not going to sit here and say
`we're just going to try and learn from the rest of the year.'
"The foot will be on the pedal and we'll all be working hard to try and turn things
around right until our last game, that's what professional footballers and
professional football teams do.
"There won't be any easing of anything and I'll keep working them hard until we find
the right formula and right players who understand 90 minutes of football on the
weekend is what it's all about."
Postecoglou and skipper Craig Moore didn't hide from the fact that Brisbane's
carelessness around goal had been costly.
Classy Victory striker Archie Thompson was unmarked in the box when he dived and
headed home the winner in just the eight minute on Saturday night.
"For Archie to get that much space in the box is alarming," said Moore, who wore his
coach's serve.
"We're just making dumb mistakes.
"Teams don't have to create against us and that's just not good enough."
Postecoglou won't have the services of speedy striker Henrique against Wellington
after he incurred an automatic one game suspension for a deliberate hand ball in the
88th minute when he grabbed a through ball that would have put Thompson into the
clear.
The sparkling first half return of striker Charlie Miller was encouraging.
However his touches and flick-ons were wasted in the first half before Postecoglou
added the pace of Henrique and young Socceroo Tommy Oar into the attack in the
second half.
Brisbane looked much sharper with Oar's speed on the left flank and Henrique's
creativity on the right.
The clash ended on a sour note with Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat refusing to shake
hands with Brisbane midfielder Matt McKay after the game.
Neither player would comment on their heated on-field exchange which left Muscat
seething.