Brisbane winger Carlo Armiento has secured a valuable A-League Men point for his side with a cracking left-footer in the 1-1 draw with Western Sydney.
The Roar were playing their first game without former Premier League striker Charlie Austin who returned to England during the week.
Armiento bamboozled Wanderers defender Gabriel Cleur before unfurling a stinging shot from just outside the area in the 61st minute that gave goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas no chance in the clash at Redcliffe.
Wanderers winger Brandon Borrello, who played 75 games for the Roar from 2013-2017, was a constant threat on the right wing and set up Oliver Bozanic in the 18th minute for the opening goal.
The match was the first fixture in round nine, with the draw taking the Roar to fifth position on 11 points with the Wanderers second on 15.
Wanderers coach Marko Rudan said his players were "very disappointed in the dressing room".
"We were easily the better side out of the two. We dropped two points tonight. We were fantastic in the first half...and had the better of the opportunities by far," he said.
Roar coach Warren Moon praised the resilience of his players after they lifted following a slow opening term.
"We showed a great response in the second half," Moon said.
"The application was better and in the end we will feel a little disappointed we didn't go on and win.
"We are now six games (in a row) undefeated. We haven't had all the wins we'd like but that was a game last year we may have lost."
A section of the Roar supporters group The Den protested the decision to move the A-League grand finals to Sydney for three years.
They let off two orange flares at the northern end of the stadium, made some noise and left the arena after 20 minutes of play as they had prearranged to do.
The start of the game was delayed for five minutes while Wanderers captain Marcelo Guedes struggled to get a ring off his finger. It finally was prized free and the visitors started well.
Guedes, formerly with Lyon in Ligue 1 in France, was a dominant presence in central defence.
Western Sydney controlled the early stages and a cut back by Borrello was clinically slotted home by Bozanic to give the visitors the lead.
Striker Joe Knowles had the best chance for the Roar when his header went over the bar. The hosts tried to use the pace of winger Nikola Meleusnic but any openings were shut down.
Borrello was in everything and was just offside in first-half added time when he slammed a left-foot shot home.
The Roar started the second stanza with more vim and Jordan Courtney-Perkins hit the crossbar with a header from a curling Riku Danzaki corner before Armiento unleashed with the play of the night.
