Fixture failure fires up Pourre
ROAR managing director David Pourre has criticised the A-League fixture scheduling as Brisbane prepare to play in front of their lowest Suncorp Stadium crowd of the season tonight.
Pourre expects an attendance of about 8000 fans when the Roar host Perth Glory at the 52,500-capacity Milton venue. While Brisbane’s disappointing start to the season won’t help entice crowds, Pourre pointed to several reasons why the Roar-Glory game should not have been scheduled for tonight.
They included it being a non-traditional night for football, Thursday being a shopping night – and a particularly busy one days before Christmas, and the match being scheduled four days after the Roar lost 2-1 at Suncorp Stadium against opponents Melbourne Victory.
Next month Brisbane have an even tighter turnaround between A-League games at Suncorp Stadium, hosting Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday, January 5, before backing up three nights later at the same venue against Sydney FC.
“The schedule for Roar games this season is anything but ideal,” Pourre said.
“We’ll just have to deal with it. It looks like we’re headed for a crowd of 8000 (fans against the Glory). Of course we’re hoping for more.”
The Roar have an average crowd of 10,455 supporters at Suncorp Stadium this season.
When you include the 5192 fans that were at Gold Coast venue Cbus Super Stadium less than two weeks ago for the Roar’s 0-0 draw with Wellington Phoenix, Brisbane’s average home attendance drops to 9578 people.
In better news for the Roar, central defender Luke DeVere is a chance to return tonight from injury. DeVere has not played in the A-League since injuring his knee in Brisbane’s 3-3 draw with Wellington on October 28.
He made a comeback as an over-age player for the Roar’s youth team on Saturday and was yesterday named in an extended squad for tonight.
Key Danish midfielder Thomas Kristensen is tipped to start tonight after making his comeback from a serious hamstring injury via the bench in Brisbane’s loss to the Victory.
“I hate losing but that wasn’t my main concern when I came on the pitch,” Kristensen said.
“I really wanted to win but when you’ve been out for that long you’re really listening to your body … so I was happy to get through it without any problems and then I was angry that we didn’t win.”
Kristensen was happy to be guided by Roar coach John Aloisi as to game time tonight.