Queensland Roar remain top of the Westfield W-League following a 2-0 win over Melbourne Victory at Ballymore on Saturday night.
Queensland Roar remain top of the Westfield W-League following a 2-0 win over Melbourne Victory at Ballymore on Saturday night.
Courtney Beutel and Tameka Butt scored either side of half-time and Melissa Barbieri saved a penalty for the Victory as the Roar dominated their opponents.
Queensland was on the attack early and Karla Reuter forced the first save after eight minutes when her shot from a tight angle was held by Barbieri.
Despite losing Louisa Bisby to a potential collar-bone fracture, the visitors came close to scoring on 22 minutes when Sophie Hogben’s free kick whistled past the Roar goal from long range.
The Roar had a great chance on the half-hour mark when Maika Ruyter-Hooley slipped on the ball in defence and let Lana Harch through.
Harch squared the ball to Tameka Butt but the Roar midfielder mis-hit the shot with the goal at her mercy and Kellond-Knight’s follow up was smothered by the ‘keeper.
The home team got the opening goal just three minutes later.
Brooke Spence’s cross from the left wing was perfectly placed for Beutel to nod home from close range for her second goal of the season.
The Queenslanders continued to attack after the break and created a number of chances early on.
Seven minutes after the restart a McShea corner kick caused chaos in the Melbourne area but Melbourne’s desperate defence kept the ball out of the net.
Kim Carrol then headed McShea’s resulting corner kick wide.
A minute later the Roar had another chance to increase the lead when Beutel broke the offside trap and rounded Barbieri, only to see her effort go wide.
The Roar’s second goal came in the 58th minute through a spectacular Butt strike.
Kellond-Knight’s corner was cleared to the edge of the area and Butt latched on to the chance with a rocket into the top corner.
Butt then won her team a penalty on 73 minutes when she was brought down by Marlies Oostdam, but Barbieri denied Kellond-Knight with a terrific save to her left.
Despite Barbieri’s heroics, Melbourne never looked like getting back into the match as they struggled against a watertight Queensland defence.
Roar coach Jeff Hopkins praised his team for their professionalism throughout the match.
“They made things difficult for us in the first half especially,” Hopkins said.
“(But) the way the girls were playing they were confident we would create chances and we saw as the game went on more and more chances became available to us.”
Barbieri was disappointed her penalty save had no effect on the final result.
“We were playing a quality outfit in the Roar and I’m just proud of my girls for coming out, showing what Melbourne Victory’s made of and making a game of it,” she said.
