Holman urges Roar to hang on to sixth spot

Brett Holman has urged his Brisbane Roar teammates not to surrender the position they find themselves sitting in.

Arguably the lowest moment in the club's 13-year history came last Tuesday in their hollow AFC Champions League qualifying defeat to Filipino side Ceres-Negros.

But the Roar managed to back it up on Saturday with a gutsy 2-1 win away to the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League.

Somehow, for all their woes, it was enough to put them into the top six - albeit equal on points with Western Sydney, who have a game in hand.

It's a quirk of the A-League's current structure, which sees more than half the 10-team competition rewarded with a finals berth.

But marquee midfielder Holman said it was tangible proof they can still get something out of what has been a horrendous season.

"Everybody can see how quick it can turn," Holman said.

"You string a couple of wins together and you're back in it.

"It's up to us now to keep that form and not just make it a couple of nice games - we carry on now and start beating everybody.

"We're still in it, and everybody's back pretty much, so we have to give it a proper shake now. There's nothing to hold us back and no excuses.

"Each game is so important for us now, otherwise we're going to be too far behind and there's no chance."

Holman said he couldn't work out why the Roar were so flat in their "embarrassing" 3-2 defeat to Ceres-Negros given the importance of the fixture - and why it took a loss like that to trigger a response from the playing group.

"It's tough to put a finger on it," he said.

"Obviously, it's been tough all year - you can say it's the injuries but I think it's just the different formations that we've played.

"If you look back at the majority of the games we've played, we haven't played with a lot of the same starting line-up all year ... it's difficult to gel."

Brisbane still have a number of injury concerns. The biggest is key midfielder Thomas Kristensen, who was forced off after just eight minutes in Gosford due to a hamstring problem.

The Danish veteran did not train on Tuesday but remains a chance of playing in Sunday's home clash against Melbourne City.