Roar have only been beaten at Suncorp Stadium once in the last two seasons and looked well on their way to another three points when Corey Brown put them ahead in the second half with a cracking volley.

However Western Sydney captain Dimas pulled his side level with a superb strike of his own from a set-piece – atoning for last week’s poor effort from the penalty spot.

Popovic was pleased with the point but questioned two bookings on striker Brendan Santalab which will see him miss the New Year's Day home clash against Perth Glory .

Santalab received a caution from the referee just a minute after coming onto the pitch for a rough aerial challenge on Roar midfielder Thomas Kristensen.

But a second incident at the death, where he again made contact with an opponent’s face saw him sent from the field.

“It was hard to see, Jade [North] blocked his run and I think the arms were all over the place,” said Popovic about the send-off.

“The linesman deemed that as a straight red so we have to deal with that.”

Roar coach John Aloisi later said he saw "Jado with scratch marks on his neck" but wasn't sure if that was the result of Santalab's challenge.

Meanwhile Popovic also took issue with Santalab’s first booking suggesting he was a victim of his own reputation.

“The first (incident) certainly I don’t think was a yellow,” he added.

“He jumps up, his arms are up, there’s no elbow, there’s no swinging action from the arm – his arms are up. Players jump with their arms up.

“But you know, certain players have a reputation, and certain players if they do something like that can easily get a yellow. And I think Santa’s one of them. So that’s something we have to learn.  We have to be careful and learn from that for the future.”

Popovic praised his side’s fighting spirit.

“Our away record has been very good,” he said.

“You go down a goal here in Brisbane, many teams have found it very difficult to come back from that and we showed a lot of spirit, a lot of fight.

“In the end we had some chances there where we could’ve won it.”

The point sees to Wanderers move back into the top six following their seventh draw of the season and with Santalab suspended for the next clash, Popovic may well turn to youth again after he made a number of changes to his starting side for the Round 12 opener.

“We had three 20-year-old’s on the field here in Brisbane so I don’t think this club has any fear of who they play,” he said.

“We held our own, there weren’t many chances in the game. It’s very difficult when you play on a pitch like that for both teams.

“It’s very difficult to play football but we fought hard, we stayed in the game.”