Fowler scores on losing A-League debut

Liverpool great Robbie Fowler scored on his Australian A-League debut but it wasn’t enough to prevent North Queensland Fury from losing their opening home game of the season on Saturday.

The former England international striker equalised with his 60th-minute penalty but Fury went down 3-2 to Sydney FC, with former Australian international forward John Aloisi scoring a brace for the winners.

Fury trailed 2-0 after 28 minutes but fought back to level after Fowler sent Sydney goalkeeper Clint Bolton the wrong way to score the first goal of his A-League stint before Aloisi clinched the win with a 73rd-minute penalty.

Fowler, 34, is the highest-profile signing in the five years of the A-League and is playing club football outside England for the first time since he finished as the fourth-highest all-time scorer with 161 goals in the English Premier League.

“We put ourselves on the back foot, but all credit to the lads to get it back to 2-2,” Fowler said.

“It was not the ideal result but I think we’ll take some credit to get back from two goals down — it shows a bit of fight in the team.”

Fowler has been handed the captaincy of the Townsville-based Fury, who have entered the expanded 10-team A-League competition this year along with Gold Coast United.

Gold Coast won their first-ever match 3-1 over Brisbane Roar on Saturday with New Zealander Shane Smeltz, Socceroo Jason Culina and Brazilian Robson all getting on the score sheet.