Battling Roar ready for comforts of home

Dec 8, 2017 - 1:16 AM Brisbane Roar are aiming to ignite their stuttering A-League season with a string of home games over the Christmas period, starting with Saturday's clash against the Wellington Phoenix.

The Roar's success has traditionally been built on winning at home and with only one of their next six matches to be played interstate, coach John Aloisi's side has a platform to vault themselves back into the finals mix.

"We've been strong at home in the past two seasons and we want to get that back," Aloisi told reporters on Friday.

"We're starting to grow anyway - (in the last) six games, three draws, two wins and one loss.

"It's not bad but we want to get better."

The Roar have been forced to stage this weekend's match an hour down the road at the Cbus Super Stadium in Robina due to a Paul McCartney concert at Suncorp Stadium.

But Aloisi is treating it as a home game all the same and expects the conditions will favour them, not the Phoenix.

It will be the first time A-League football has been played on the tourist strip since the demise of the Clive Palmer-owned Gold Coast United in 2012.

"The pitch looks brilliant. It's actually the best I've ever seen it," Aloisi said.

"It's a nice little stadium and hopefully there's a good crowd that will support us and we can put on a good performance for everyone."

Aloisi said he was anticipating a fierce response from Wellington, who are bottom of the table after letting a two-goal lead slip in a 3-2 home defeat to Melbourne Victory last weekend.

Striker Andrija Kaludjerovic, who had a brief stint with Brisbane in 2015, scored both of the Phoenix's goals to bring his tally to eight for the season - more than any other player in the A-League.

The Roar should regain defender Corey Brown, who Aloisi hinted was likely to return at left-back at the expense of in-form teenager Connor O'Toole.

However, attacking spark Fahid Ben Khalfallah was restricted to running laps at Friday's final training session and would appear to be only an outside chance of making his return from injury.

STATS THAT MATTER

* Wellington have won in two of their last four visits to Queensland to play the Roar, after having never won there previously.

* This will be the first A-League game at Cbus Super Stadium since Gold Coast United's final game in 2012, which saw Brisbane Roar claim full points in a 2-1 win.

* Wellington are yet to pick up points away from home under Darije Kalezic's charge, losing three road fixtures this season and failing to score a goal in two of them.

Source: AAP