Brisbane Roar beat Western Sydney Wanderers, close in on A-League top six

Brisbane ramped up the battle for sixth spot in the A-League with a 2-1 away win over Western Sydney Wanderers at the Bankwest Stadium on Friday.

The Roar, sitting in seventh spot, moved to within two points of the sixth-placed Wanderers, with three games in hand, while Western United in eighth are five points behind Western Sydney having played four fewer matches.

Roar coach Warren Moon said Friday's victory was a significant result for his side, who are rebounding from a long winless stretch.

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"It's big because the table doesn't lie and people look at it and if the result didn't go our way the gap would have been a little bit larger," he said.

Riku Danzaki scored his third goal in as many matches in first half added time. It was back-to-back success for Brisbane following eight matches without a victory, while the Wanderers went a fifth game without a win.

Wanderers coach Carl Robinson said he was still searching to find the right combinations, especially up forward, and admitted he needed to settle on some urgently, with just eight games left.

"We need to try and find it out sooner rather than later, we can't keep waiting and waiting," Robinson said. "There was some good stuff, there was some inconsistent stuff and I think over the last three, four games especially we have shown we're good at times and very, very average at times and today was a microcosm of that."

Sydney pressed hard in the final half hour but Brisbane goalkeeper Jamie Young produced a number of saves to preserve his side's lead, and Roar defenders made some crucial blocks.

Two Wanderers substitutes combined to create a good chance with Kwame Yeboah's header from a Daniel Wilmering cross pushed away by Young.

The veteran keeper pulled off an even better stop to keep out a close-range Dylan McGowan shot and in added time denied Bruce Kamau.

Substitute Alex Parsons almost extended Brisbane's lead on a rare breakout, but had a fine shot pushed away by Wanderers goalkeeper Daniel Margush and another blaze over the bar.

Josh Brindell-South scored his first A-League goal in the 18th minute to put the visitors ahead, drilling home the rebound after Margush pushed away an effort from Dylan Wenzel-Halls.

Wenzel-Halls missed a glorious opportunity to double the lead when he headed a Corey Brown cross over from five metres.

Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

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Within a minute, Western Sydney equalised after Mitchell Duke pounced on the loose ball following a collision between Brisbane defenders Tom Aldred and Scott Neville, played it through to Simon Cox who quickly passed to Kamau to slot past Young.

Roar captain Aldred had to leave the ground after the goal with a hamstring issue, which the Brisbane coach hoped wasn't serious.

"Obviously a great chance for Dylan and on another day he should score and then a double whammy with a collision and [the Wanderers' equaliser]," Moon said.

"Really proud of the response from the boys because it was quite a pivotal moment in the game at that point and to show the resilience and the character we did was really pleasing."

When Aldred went off he handed the armband to Jay O'Shea, who almost put his side ahead in remarkable circumstances in the 43rd minute.

The Irishman chipped the ball over a back-pedalling Margush from a metre inside the Roar half, only to see it crash off the top of the crossbar.

"We've seen him [O'Shea] do it in training many times so that's not a fluke," Moon said.

Western Sydney's Duke headed over twice in the first four minutes of the second half while Brisbane's Macaulay Gillesphey also put one over the bar, and forced a save from Margush with another header.