The Brisbane Strikers got their Premier League campaign back on track last night, as Greg Di Losa's first goal at Perry Park in seven years set them on their way to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over a resilient Toowoomba Raiders.

While the Strikers delivered the goods for coach Bobby Hamilton, who demanded nothing less than three points from his team, they were made to dig deep by a Raiders team who refused to be beaten and showed enough to suggest that they will trouble most sides in the league as the season goes on.

It was the visiting team who brought the first save of the game from the opposing goalkeeper, as Raiders' forward Michael Giallourakis was played in behind the Strikers' back four in the fourth minute by a long ball from the right. While there was a suspicion of offside about Giallourakis's run there was no mistaking his pace as he outpaced the Strikers defence to volley a shot towards goal that was well blocked from close range by goalkeeper Antony Hall.

The home side responded soon after when Di Losa fashioned his own opportunity from a high ball into the Toowoomba penalty area. Di Losa did well to chest it down and evade a Raiders defender, before trying to lob the advancing Toowoomba goalkeeper, Michael Pike. But while the shot beat Pike it also cleared the crossbar.

In the thirteenth minute, though, the big striker's seven year Perry Park itch was finally scratched. With the Strikers gaining some early ascendancy in midfield, right back Adam Webber was played into space some ten or fifteen metres inside the Toowoomba half. Webber looked up and saw Di Losa criminally neglected by the Raiders defenders around the edge of their box, and picked him out with an inch-perfect high ball. Di Losa had so much time on his hands that he probably had a good look at the positioning of Pike, who had managed to get himself into 'no man's land' about half way between his line and Di Losa. Di Losa's header was placed neatly over the 'keeper before dipping under the bar to put his team in front.

The rest of the first half drifted by largely without remarkable incident, as both teams' defences snuffed out the best that the opposing players could create in front of them. As a result, it seemed that the midfield battle became more intense, with both sides attempting to play the ball to feet through the midfield before releasing it forward. Some of the exchanges down the touchline near the Bill Waddell stand, in particular, became rather willing as Toowoomba's Liam Riedy and Chris Hinchley mixed it up with the Strikers' winger Eli Gilfedder and Michael Zullo, who was used by Hamilton in the role of left fullback. Some of these exchanges perhaps lit the fuse for some of the fireworks that would erupt in the second half.

The teams went into the break with the home side still 1-0 to the good and looking fairly comfortable. While Toowoomba had produced some good passages of play through their midfield, the quality and timing of their 'final' ball had been lacking and they had not seriously troubled the Strikers defence in the danger areas of the pitch, where stoppers Matthew Bell and Daniel Leach were coping well with the physical presence of the rangy Pat Lucey and the buzzing running of Giallourakis.

There was a sense, however, that there was enough in the Raiders' style of play to suggest that they would fashion an opportunity somewhere along the way to tie up the scores, and the Strikers needed the buffer of a second goal to be reasonably confident of taking the three points. And to their credit, the home side started the second half as if they badly wanted to get that buffer.

Seven minutes into the half, a beautifully worked counter-attack down the right saw Butters collect the ball on the half-way line and flick a pass with the outside of his foot to Di Losa, who had drifted away from his normal central position towards the right touchline. Di Losa pinned his ears back and clapped on the acceleration to get around and in behind the Raiders' defensive line, before delivering a made-to-measure square ball that gave Pike no choice but to remain on his line and watch it elude his defenders as it unerringly found Gilfedder. The winger was arriving inside the penalty area at full pace but produced a confident finishing touch with the inside of his left foot, without so much as breaking stride, and the Strikers were 2-0 in front.

Shortly afterwards Gilfedder was substituted, replaced by Ross Cunneen, but any thoughts entertained by Hamilton of a comfortable final half hour were erased in the sixty-sixth minute when Toowoomba midfielder Chris Wilkes, as if in acknowledgement that the Raiders could not pass their way through the Strikers' back four, decided to have a pop from about thirty metres out in mid-pitch. Wilkes struck the ball well but must have nevertheless been delighted to receive the bonus of a bounce that made the ball leap with the venom of a Brett Lee bouncer to evade Hall's despairing dive to his right. The ball finished in the right hand corner of Hall's goal and the Raiders celebrated a lifeline that had come out of next to nothing.

The intensity of the game soon lifted noticeably as the Raiders sensed an opportunity to get something out of it and the Strikers tried to kill it off by getting a third goal. A more physical edge began to creep into the contest. Giallourakis came close to getting an equaliser when, working down the left, he cut inside a Strikers defender to curl a right-footed shot from the corner of the penalty area narrowly over the left-hand corner of Hall's goal.

For the home side the best moments were coming down the right flank as Butters, Di Losa and Webber showed the sort of composure that was perhaps lacking in some other areas of the pitch while the tackles flew in thick and fast.

As the match went into its final quarter the tempers of some of the Raiders players began to unravel over some unfavourable refereeing decisions. At one point, Zullo was brought down in what appeared to be a rather late and crude tackle by Wilkes. As some of the Strikers players took exception to the tackle, Wilkes reacted and players rushed from all directions for some vigorous pushing and shoving as the game threatened to boil over into a melee. Order was restored, however, before Wilkes was shown a yellow card while Strikers supporters bayed for a red.

The Raiders refused to lie down, and took the game to the home side who were forced into some scrambling defence inside their own penalty area. This saw Webber produce one exceptional block to deny a Toowoomba attacker who found himself with time to pull the trigger on the left edge of the penalty area after a sustained spell of pressure by the visitors.

Hamilton used his bench twice more, replacing Carl Giannangello with Brad Stevens, and debutante Stuart Robert-Smith coming on to replace Butters, who had produced a strong second half but appeared to succumb to a calf injury.

A succession of corners and free kicks kept Hall's goal under siege for much of the last ten minutes, but once again on the break the Strikers found space down the right to fashion the best opportunity of the closing stages when Robert-Smith got deep into Raiders territory before producing a looping, curling cross to Di Losa's head. With the goalkeeper having been removed from the equation by the quality of the substitute's cross, he was stranded near his line and Di Losa had the goal at his mercy. Di Losa's jump was good enough to get him over the ball so that he could direct it downward, but on this occasion the striker failed to hit the target and the ball bounced wide with Pike merely looking on in hope.

Having survived this scare, Toowoomba continued to press with some measure of desperation. Strikers supporters had their nerves frayed as they watched their team rush and misdirect their passes, and turn over possession, under the unrelenting pressure being applied by the visitors. However, the referee's full time whistle after five minutes of injury time confirmed that the home side had survived the onslaught and, in doing so, snapped its three-match losing trot to take maximum points.

Hamilton, who had stressed to his players during the week that this was a match they had to win, will have viewed it as 'mission accomplished' and could be excused for not particularly caring that the last twenty minutes or so were not pretty. He will now be looking forward to regaining the services of some of his more experienced players, as they return from injuries and suspension, for three tough weeks which will see them take on Palm Beach, Taringa Rovers and Mitchelton.