Defensive blunders have spoiled Frank Farina's Queensland "homecoming" as Melbourne Victory duly cashed in to tighten its stranglehold on the A-League premiership.

The classy Victory shot 12 points clear at the top of the ladder with a 2-0 triumph in a sometimes spiteful clash at Suncorp Stadium, giving them a record six-match winning streak on the road.

Both goals came courtesy of terrible Roar mistakes in either half which tormented former Socceroos coach Farina in his first match in charge after replacing Miron Bleiberg.

The most painful for the new coach and the partisan 14,797-strong crowd was the first in the 18th minute when defender Andy Packer conceded Queensland's fourth own goal of the season.

Fred's crafty through-ball forced a misunderstanding between the defender and keeper Liam Reddy and Packer's back-pass rolled into the net.

On taking over on Thursday, Farina identified the Roar's woeful home record of four wins from 17 matches as a major problem and called for Suncorp to be transformed into a fortress.

But any hopes he had of tasting instant success at the ground where he led the Brisbane Strikers to the 1997 NSL title were dashed in the 47th minute when Archie Thompson latched on to a Simon Storey long ball.

Central defenders Josh McCloughan and Sasa Ognenovski both missed clearance attempts to allow Thompson to lob Reddy for his seventh goal of the season.

A trademark of Bleiberg's one-and-a-half season rein was Queensland's ability to create chances but inability to convert.

The Roar continued the wasteful trend under Farina with far more attempts (20-10) and shots (7-3) on goal.

But the closest they came against Ernie Merrick's "meanest defence in the league" was when Stu McLaren's 65th minute shot deflected off Matt McKay and bounced off the right upright.

The Roar were shaken before the match due to the withdrawal of star striker Simon Lynch with a thigh injury that forced Farina into a reshuffle.

Captain Chad Gibson, out of favour under Bleiberg, was the big winner by being promoted for his first start in seven weeks.

But Gibson was fortunate not to gift Victory with an immediate goal as Fred seized on his errant back pass only for McCloughan to pull off a great escape.

McCloughan's challenge ended with Fred colliding heavily with Reddy and the Brazilian spent the rest of the half limping around but still gave the Roar plenty of grief before being subbed off at the break.

Referee Simon Przydacz handed out five yellow cards in an intense first half, earning the ire of the crowd by showing four to Roar players.

Reddy did save the Roar from further trouble with two fine stops within five minutes late in the half before the home side enjoyed its best period in the match.

The best came from a curling strike by a bandaged Grant Brebner which forced a full-length dive to the left by Reddy who then managed to parry the bouncing ball over the goal line with Thompson closing in on the scraps.

A bloodied Brebner had just returned to the arena after leaving the field for stitches following a fair Gibson tackle.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick praised his side for a courageous display which took a major toll on his troops.

His list of walking wounded totalled eight at the end of the game with inspirational skipper Kevin Muscat looking the most worrying with both knee and calf problems.

Storey (quad), Daniel Piorkowski (hamstring), Thompson (thigh), Fred (thigh), Brebner (eye - eight stitches), Daniel Allsopp (ankle) and Steve Pantelidis (broken nose) also finished in bad states.

"That was very tough," Merrick said.

"There was a fair bit of cost to getting the three points tonight."

Farina shielded Reddy from blame for both goals but lamented poor lapses at the back for the team's fourth loss in five matches.

"I thought we gave away two pretty ordinary goals tonight and you can't do that against a team like Melbourne," he said.

"To give away two goals like that was disappointing but I was pleased with the effort of the lads - they put in."(The own goal) didn't look dangerous at all. It was a (through) ball that we were always going to get to, which we did but just put it in the back of the net."

Farina praised right fullback Hyuk-Su Seo for an "absolutely brilliant" game and was also well pleased with the efforts of midfielders McKay and Spase Dilevski.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP