North Queensland fans now have continued cause to celebrate him, too.

Fowler's 53rd minute strike in Saturday night's match would be worthy of winning any contest, and was particularly reminiscent of his top-draw goal for Liverpool against Birmingham in the Worthington Cup final, season 2000/2001.

What is more, his clinical strike ensured a hard-fought upset win for Fury against championship hopefuls, Sydney FC.

And it wasn't just the Englishman earning his pay this weekend either. Round six will be undoubtedly remembered for the impact of the imports, with international players scoring in every match this weekend. A far cry from the days of Brian Deane and Edmundo Zura.....

Cassio stepped up to the plate in Adelaide while Brazilians Henrique and Reinaldo tore through a lacklustre Newcastle Jets team. Costa Rican Carlos Hernandez opened the scoring for Victory against Wellington and Serbian international Branko Jelic again found himself on the scoresheet for Perth Glory.

Round six also saw the resumption of the National Youth League for another year, with the stars of tomorrow playing in curtain-raisers for their clubs across the country in some exciting contests.

The round kicked off on Friday night with a tussle between the travelling Central Coast Mariners against a rejuvenated Adelaide United. Both teams were looking to build on encouraging performances in the previous week, and, after a stuttering start to the season, Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar hinted during the week that his team were looking for some uncompromising results.

Influential midfield duo Cassio and Travis Dodd were welcomed back into the home side set up, and both added electrifying pace to an attack that, in recent weeks, had looked to be stagnating. 

The Mariners seemed content to soak up a seemingly endless Adelaide attack, but created a handful of chances themselves. A Matt Simon header in the eighth minute was cleared on the goal line by Alemao with Ahmad Elrich's curling strike just after the half-hour mark the best of their attempts.

It was Cassio, though, who, after weeks of talk surrounding his future of the club, reaffirmed his devotion to the club through an expertly struck free kick. From distance, the little Brazilian curved his free kick over the wall and beat a sprawling Danny Vukovic at his near post.

Adelaide took their lead into half time and survived a scrappy second half to record just their second win of the season.

The first game of the Saturday night double-header saw Brisbane Roar visit Energy Australia Stadium at Newcastle, a ground that had proven to be a happy hunting ground for the Queenslanders in the past.

And it didn't take long for the Queensland outfit to get into the swing of things.  Brisbane were unlucky to not take the lead in the 4th minute when Sergio van Dijk stuck a powerful angled drive across Ben Kennedy's goal, only to see the keeper palm it onto the left upright.

Frank Farina welcomed back Roar fan favourite Reinaldo into the starting eleven for the first time in 11 months, and the Brazilian repaid his boss' patience with a lively performance in front of goal.

Indeed, it was the lanky forward who, on 24 minutes, out-muscled his defender on the sideline and made a steamrolling run into the box to calmly tee up his fellow countryman Henrique, who slotted home from six yards.

Reinaldo was again at the forefront of the action two minutes later when van Dijk played a crafty through-ball to put his team mate through for a one-on-one with Ben Kennedy. Although the Jets keeper blocked Reinaldo's initial attempt, he could do little to stop the striker side-footing the rebound into the net.

Newcastle's most definitive chance came halfway through the first half when young Socceroo Jason Hoffman found himself with only the keeper to beat but skied his rushed shot.

Brisbane continued to dominate the second half, and it was Charlie Miller who, on 70 minutes, sealed his side's win with a powerful, thrashing volley. 

While 22 players would ultimately line up for the start of the Sydney vs North Queensland match, the game had been billed as 'Aloisi vs God' by the press during the week. A healthy crowd of just fewer than 17,000 turned up to the SFS - including a large contingent of Liverpool fanatics, hell-bent on seeing one of their idols in the flesh.

And it was Fowler's Fury who took the game to the hosts in the early stages, with Ufuk Talay controlling the play in the middle of the park, and James Robinson breaking swiftly down the right-hand flank to cause trouble for the Sydney defence

Rostyn Griffiths' curling shot from the edge of the box was another warning shot for Sydney as the visitors dominated the opening 20 minutes.

It was Sydney though, who, against the run of play had an excellent opportunity to take the lead on 24 minutes. As he did in round one, Fury goal keeper Paul Henderson brought down Alex Brosque in the penalty area with a rash challenge after some sparkling inter-play between Brosque and Korean full-back Sung-Hwan Byun

This time though, the Fury custodian picked John Aloisi's spot kick and made a diving save to atone for his error.

North Queensland felt like they deserved to take the lead in the dying stages of the first half, only to see a deflected James Robinson goal ruled out by a contentious offside decision.

While Sydney upped the tempo in the second half, their resolve was to come undone in the 53rd minute when Henderson launched a ball up-field in the direction of Daniel McBreen, who then flicked the ball on for fellow striker Fowler.

The resulting 25 metre volley left Clint Bolton with no chance.

By his own admission, Fowler should have killed the game off two minutes later, but shot just wide of the target.

Although Sydney starlet Kofi Danning was introduced after the hour mark, Sydney looked at odds to create scoring chances and North Queensland held on for a famous victory.

Still chasing their first home win for the season, Melbourne Victory set out to get a result against the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday afternoon - a team they had traditionally done well against at Etihad Stadium.

And the home side couldn't have asked for a better start to the match after Ney Fabiano was brought down by Vince Lia just outside the Phoenix penalty area. Carlos Hernandez stepped over the ball and unleashed an amazing curling free kick, which left the Phoenix keeper with no chance.

It could have been 2-0 just minutes later when Thompson teed up Ney Fabiano, whose header just missed the target.

From here, though, the Phoenix worked themselves back into the game, and chances to Chris Greenacre and Daniel testing former Wellington keeper Glen Moss in the Victory goal.

And on the half-hour mark Wellington were rewarded after Daniel raced to meet a through ball on the by-line before sending it into the box, where Tim Brown coolly controlled before finishing with pin-point precision.

The second half held just as many chances as the first, with Hernandez and Thompson both coming close for the Victory; and Bertos and Greenacre looking lively for the visitors.

Yellow Fever scholarship winner Marco Rojas was introduced into the fray for the final 15 minutes as each team pressed for the winner. In the end, though, a draw was deemed to be deserving of such an entertaining contest.

In the final match of the round table-toppers Gold Coast United ventured across the continent to meet Perth Glory.

Glory boss Dave Mitchell had reiterated the need to make the most of a home ground advantage during the week, and, in front of the Shed, his team did just that.

As early as the ninth minute, Glory midfielder Adriano Pellegrino was causing problems for Gold Coast, the wily attacker sent in a quality cross that Sikora only just failed to control.

Minutes later Glory took the lead through Branko Jelic after a mistake by Coast defender Adama Traore.

And before the visitors had time to regain their composure, Glory struck again.

A poor kick-off allowed Naum Sekulovski to take possession at left midfield, who then slipped a pass to a speeding Victor Sikora. The former Dutch international continued to accelerate onto goal and fired home past a diving Scott Higgins to double the lead.

Clearly rattled, United's defence almost conceded a third when an errant backpass fell perfectly for Pellegrino in the area who fired over the bar.

Gold Coast lifted early in the second half, culminating in a 53rd minute goal to centre-back Bas Van den Brink. The warning signs were there as Tando Velaphi did well to punch away Kristian Rees's header from a Coast attack, but from the corner that followed van den Brink was on hand to power home his header from Culina's whipped in ball.

Playing against the most unforgiving attacking side in the league, Glory continued to pour men forward, and refused to go into their shells. Just after the hour a Pellegrino corner led to a mad scramble in the United box while Higgins brilliantly blocked Jelic's goalbound effort in the 73rd minute.

Just as it looked as though Glory had done enough to hold on for a win, Smeltz pounced from close range in injury time to fire past Velaphi to nab a well-earned point for his team.