Roar were reduced to nine men following the 33rd minute dismissal of Mitch Nichols and a 76th minute red card to Hyuk-Su Seo.

Nichols was red-carded for a heavy challenge on Nigel Boogaard and Seo for an altercation with Nick Mrdja.

But Roar defied the odds and came away with a spirited victory at Gosford thanks to goals from Ante Milicic, Marcinho and Reinaldo.

Coach Frank Farina will be pleased with the character of his team but at the cost of Nichols and Seo facing a suspension for the season opener.

The Roar boss gave a first start to Liam Reddy’s understudy Griffin McMaster in an attempt to battle-harden as many troops as possible ahead of the big kick-off in just under two weeks' time.

It wasn’t long before McMaster was picking the ball out of his net though as the home side took an early lead.

Danny Tiatto was dispossessed by Jedinak and Matt Simon pounced on the loose ball to slot home in the 8th minute.

Roar came back hard with Mitch Nichols and Marcinho both causing problems for the Mariners’ rearguard as Farina’s men searched for the equaliser.

Just before the half hour Adam Kwasnik almost doubled the Mariners’ lead when he met Damian Brown’s cross with a firm header but his effort rebounded back off McMaster’s crossbar.

Soon after Roar were level when Ante Milicic netted his second goal in as many games following some neat work from Matt McKay to set him up, but were rocked three minutes later by Nichols’ dismissal.

Debuting marquee signing Craig Moore was replaced at the start of the second half by Ben Griffin and Danny Tiatto made way for Stuart McLaren as ten-man Queensland looked to dig in for a tough 45 minutes work.

Brazilian import Marcinho had other ideas though and he fired Roar into the lead on 48 minutes following some smart interplay with Ante Milicic.

The goal gave Farina’s men something to defend and they set about closing out the match.

Roar were hit with a further setback with 15 minutes remaining when Seo was given his marching orders for his tangle with Mrdja, but led by the impressive Ognenovski Roar contained the home side’s assaults.

Farina’s men confirmed the victory with a third goal in the dying minutes from substitute Reinaldo to record a gritty away win.

Roar will have one final hit-out next Friday night when they take on the Soloman Islands national team at Luxury Paints Stadium in Richlands.

Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna admitted: "Queensland to their credit got everybody behind the ball.

"We had nobody with the courage to take the game to them and drag their players out of position.

"We were just happy to go back to Viddie, Boogs or Wilko, go wide, come back inside and then give the ball away.

"It was average. We went from having a good pre-season, to being bad in the last two weeks."

He added: "We’ve got two weeks to turn it around now – the one good thing is that we’re playing Sydney FC in the first round.

"There were passages of play in the first half and the second half that were good and when we were down 2-1, the intensity of our play picked up.

"As of tomorrow, we’ll have everyone fit – John Hutchinson will be back, Tom Pondeljak will be back and Sasho Petrovski will be back, but they’re not guaranteed a starting spot.

"Nobody is guaranteed a starting spot."