North Queensland Fury recorded a much-needed 1-0 victory over Sydney FC in Townsville tonight.
After a lacklustre first half which yielded few goalscoring chances, the Fury stepped up in the second term to deliver the killer blow 20 minutes from time.
Former Sydney midfielder and now Fury captain, Ufuk Talay, sent a 71st minute free-kick into the near post which Sky Blues keeper Ivan Necevski got his hands to but could only fumble into the back of his own net to give the home side the lead.
Sydney pressed hard for an equaliser but they came up short as the Fury moved from bottom on the table up to 9th, replacing tonight's opponents on goal difference as Perth Glory fell to the foot of the table.
A-League Week 18 - midweekNorth Queensland Fury: 1 (Ufuk Talay 71') Sydney FC: 0
Venue: Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville Crowd: approx. 4,000 Referee: Chris Beath Yellow cards:NQF - Mark Hughes 8', Panny Nikas 15' SYD - Shannon Cole 68', Hito Moriyasu 70'
Starting Line-Ups
NQFJustin Pasfield (gk), Simon Storey, Adam Hughes, Osama Malik (Tavsancioglu 51'), Brad McDonald, Gareth Edds, Ufuk Talay, Panny Nikas, Jack Hingert (Daal 57'), Jason Spagnuolo (Payne 72'), David Williams
Subs - Sebastian Usai (gk), Ramazan Tavsancioglu (51'), Dyron Daal (57'), Chris Payne (72')
SYD Ivan Necevski (gk), Shannon Cole, Stephan Keller, Seb Ryal, Sung-hwan Byun, Terry McFlynn, Stuart Musialik (Jamieson 79'), Hiro Moriyasu, Mark Bridge, Dimitri Petratos, Bruno Cazarine (Brosque 61')
Subs - Liam Reddy (gk), Alex Brosque (61'), Scott Jamieson (79'), Matthew Jurman
