Antonio Murray continues to shine in his trial with Brisbane Roar, however the Brisbane City striker remains mindful of the challenges remaining in the NPL Queensland season – including qualifying for the finals series.

Murray played 20 minutes for Roar against Brisbane Strikers on Wednesday night, scoring the final goal in an all-encompassing 11-0 win for the A-League club.

It is the third goal for Murray during the Roar’s preseason and continues an impressive run of scoring form for the striker who has netted on 23 occasions in the NPL this season.

Murray’s goal came from an 86^th minute penalty after star Roar striker Besart Berisha was brought down by young Strikers goalkeeper Will Rockett.

After the match, Murray said he was pleasantly surprised the former A-League golden boot Besart Berisha gave up a chance at a hat-trick to offer him the penalty kick.

“I was pretty shocked Besart gave up the penalty to be honest,” Murray said.

“Besart just said ‘do you want it?’ and I said ‘yeah, yeah of course I want it’ – anything to get on the scoresheet,” Murray added with typical goal scorer’s relish.

Murray said he was happy with his role in the win and was relishing the Roar's style of play.

“It was good to get a few minutes again for the Roar. Always helps when you’re 7-0 up – it makes it easier for me to get into the game.”

“Also Roar play a good brand of football – everyone knows that and it’s no secret.”

However, the English born striker keenly pointed out his ongoing trial wasn’t distracting him from the remainder of Brisbane City’s NPL Queensland campaign – including a highly anticipated fixture against Strikers to close the regular season.

“We got a big game against Strikers in a couple of weeks. Obviously it does them no favours losing 11-0 to Roar but I’m sure they will knuckle down in training and regather again,” Murray said.

The 29 year old also stressed he and City teammates were aware they hadn’t qualified for the finals yet - with four teams still in contention for the final three placings behind premiers Olympic FC.

“We got to win our games yet,” Murray said. “We have Fury away this Sunday which is one of the hardest games in the league at the moment.”

“We got Redlands and Strikers away as well coming up. We’re looking to get maximum points obviously but they are going to be hard games.”

“We have to get our heads right because we had a bad loss last week obviously,” Murray said referencing last Saturday’s 6-1 loss to Sunshine Coast Fire at Spencer Park.

“We got to regather again, knuckle down, work hard, get back to basics and win games again.”

City will line up against the in form Northern Fury at Townsville Sports Reserve this Sunday afternoon. Kick-off is scheduled for 3pm.

 

Words: Michael Flynn (Football Queensland)
Image: Brisbane Roar/York Street Photography