Honda who? Try Le Fondre, the Brit's now two goals clear of Chris Ikonomidis at the top of the A-League scoring charts with his eighth strike in 10 games.

Brisbane played high-quality, up tempo football and held possession adequately, but Le Fondre drifted intelligently between the two Roar centrebacks off a counter and sent a plum header looping over a static Jamie Young.

But Brisbane held a high-line under new interim Darren Davies' stewardship and it paid dividends, restricting the Sky Blues while allowing a numerical advantage while pressing forward.

This culimated in the equaliser, Matt McKay - playing further forward than he has in years - chesting in Dane Ingham's cross (for the second night in a row, a Kiwi dominated against one of the Big Blue).

But whatever Steve Corica said at half time worked and Sydney emerged with expected dominance, Le Fondre knicking another with an equally sublime finish on the 55th minute.

"We had a lot of chances towards the end and we stood well to the barrage," le Fondre said.

"Redders did an outstanding job with the penalty and we're going to use that as a springboard. I'm there to finish off chances and I'm delighted to score two tonight.

"It's a contentious decision, but ultimately Redmayne won us the game with that."

Both sides had their moments, before a controversial penalty decision was awarded to Adam Taggart, Aaron Calver appearing to just tap the back of Taggart's boot from behind.

After a lengthy delay, Redmayne saved Taggart's tame penalty and Sydney confirmed their third win in a row.

The match proved that Brisbane's issues aren't systemic. The quality of their squad is better than ninth place and under the right coach, they should be challenging any A-League side.

Whether Davies is that coach remains to be seen - but matching the reigning Premiers isn't a bad first day on the job for the Young Socceroos assistant.

"I'm very proud," Ingham said. "The boys fought well together, it was an unfortunate result but we're going to keep pushing towards Newcastle.

"It was unfortunate about Aloisi, I'm very sad about his departure but we're going to do what we need to do to keep going.

"I've got to thank my teammates, I had free range to go out and have fun."