Roar leaves it late

In four previous pre-season visits to the region, the Jets had not claimed a victory and a late penalty by Ivan Franjic again saw the Novocastrians taste defeat in the Hastings.

The Jets nearly opened the scoring after 10 minutes through Iraqi livewire Ali Abbas.

The winger’s right-footed strike flew wide of the target after some fine lead-up work down the right flank by Labinot Haliti and Marko Jesic.

Down the other end, young striker Costa Barbarouses pounced on a loose ball inside the Jets’ penalty area before hitting a stinging low drive, forcing goalkeeper Ben Kennedy into a fine diving save to his right.

Ruben Zadkovich, in his first start for the Jets, produced an equally spectacular save out of Roar custodian Michael Theoklitos on the half hour mark with a curling left-footed effort from 20m.

With four fresh faces on the pitch after halftime, it seemed certain that the Jets would open the scoring in the 52nd minute when a delightful Kasey Wehrman through-ball opened things up for Sean Rooney who squared it neatly for Jobe Wheelhouse.

However, a valiant Theoklitos would again come to the rescue for the Queenslanders, saving Wheelhouse’s shot and scrambling the ball to safety.

Rooney and Abbas were busy throughout the second half, and both had opportunities to score midway through the stanza, only to see their efforts sail past the target.

Roar rarely threatened the Jets’ rearguard but in the dying minutes German midfielder Thomas Broich showed some swift footwork inside the penalty area, slipping between two defenders before being clipped from behind.

The ensuing penalty would surely determine the outcome of the match and right-back Franjic stepped up to convert the spot-kick.

The 22-year-old made no mistake, sending Paul Henderson the wrong way to claim an unlikely victory for Brisbane.