Brisbane stun Sydney FC 2-1

BRISBANE, Australia: 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.