Former Socceroos coach Frank Farina has earned his first A-League victory after Queensland Roar defeated Perth Glory 1-0 to break a string of four consecutive losses.

The Roar, which hadn't won at home since mid-September's 5-0 demolition of the New Zealand Knights, secured victory ten minutes from full-time thanks to a wonderful dipping volley from Matt McKay.

The game followed a similar pattern to the A-League season opener at Suncorp when Perth resisted Queensland's advances for 80 minutes before succumbing to three late strikes.

The Glory, without ex-Socceroo Stan Lazaridis because of a hamstring strain, were equally resolute on their second visit to Brisbane until McKay slammed home his third goal of the season after spurning a one-on-one chance earlier in the second-half.

Farina sprang a surprise before kick-off by not only recalling Stuart McLaren as a like-for-like replacement for the suspended Chad Gibson, but handing McLaren the captain's armband.

Farina also gave Australian under-20 international midfielder Chris Grossman his A-League debut and gave striker Simon Lynch only his second start in two months.

Lynch hadn't found the net since round four after a litany of niggling injuries, most recently an upper thigh strain which has been hampering his shooting, but he and Grossman combined midway through the first-half to force Perth goalkeeper Tom Tomich into a point-blank save.

At the other end, Josh McCloughan's mistake almost let in converted striker Jamie Harnwell but when the pair tangled then fell to ground on the edge of the Queensland box, referee Craig Zetter waved play on.

Former Perth forward Damian Mori then received a perfect pass from the busy McKay but after taking a great first touch pulled the resulting shot a metre wide of Tomich's right-hand upright to spurn the best chance of the opening 45 minutes.

Queensland's defence didn't always look secure with individual errors gifting Harnwell, Naum Sekulovski and Stuart Young chances in the first-half before McLaren's timely interception as Leo Bertos waited to pounce saved Reddy's blushes after he fumbled a cross.

Chances fell to Spase Dilevski and Hyuk-Su Seo with a trademark blast from well outside Perth's penalty area before McKay failed to put away an excellent one-on-one chance with just the inspired Tomich to beat.

Reddy then matched his opposite number with a commanding block when Simon Colosimo's cheeky pass put Young in the clear.

But McKay drilled home an inch-perfect volley after Perth failed to clear a Dario Vidosic cross before Reddy denied Young an equaliser with a one-handed save onto the roof of the net.

McKay said afterwards his screamer had surprised even him.

"Normally those ones I get I spray them to every single side but I just hit it sweetly with good technique and I'm glad it went in," he said.

"I enjoyed playing that advanced role. Sometimes I go looking for the ball a bit too much so I'm glad to just relax in there.

"It's good having experienced players like Frogger (Mori) in the side because they can give you that bit of information that can help.

"I really fed off him tonight."

Glory coach Ron Smith said Perth were once again caught out too many times by Queensland's rapid counter-attack.

"It's a bit like deja vu again," he said.

"We've had a few games like that. To be fair Queensland created more than we did tonight and on the balance of play you'd have to hold your hand up and say they deserved to win the game.

"(But) we're not very good at playing teams that manage to attack very quickly on the break.

"If you look at a lot of the opportunities that came tonight, it started from that kind of situation where it's a race to get down the other end of the field."

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