Albanian striker Besart Berisha's second goal of the match on a heavily disputed penalty after seven minutes of added time gave the Brisbane Roar their second straight A-League football title on Sunday, a 2-1 win over the Perth Glory.
Berisha, who scored in the 84th minute to level for Brisbane after an own goal by Ivan Franjic had given Perth a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute, went down in the box and was awarded the penalty by referee Jarred Gillett, despite protests by Glory players and management.
Gillett pointed to the spot after Berisha fell in the penalty area after scrambling for the ball with three Glory defenders.
''I feel like I've been robbed there with the decision, it cost us the grand final,'' said Glory skipper Jacob Burns. ''You could see plain as day ... you could see it by Berisha's reaction. He came up straight up and said it wasn't a penalty. I'm just gutted.''
Berisha's equalizer came on a headed goal from a pinpoint cross from Thomas Broich.
In an embarrassing gaffe, Burns was eventually awarded the Joe Marston Medal for the grand final's best player after it was mistakenly given to Broich.
About an hour after Broich was handed the medal in front of the remnants of a 50,000-plus crowd, A-League chief Lyall Gorman admitted an ''administrative error'' had led to Broich and not Burns being handed the award.
''It was just a breakdown in communication between the judging panel and the announcer, it was one of those unfortunate incidents,'' Gorman said. ''Just purely in the delivery from the votes being counted to the (post-match announcer).''
Burns accepted the award at a post-match media conference.
''We apologize to the Roar, Thomas Broich and Perth Glory, but most of all to Jacob Burns,'' Gorman said.
The Roar led the A-League standings until mid-December on the back of an Australian-record 36-match unbeaten streak, but finished second in the regular-season standings to the Central Coast Mariners.
Brisbane beat the Mariners in a two-leg major semifinal in the playoffs while Perth defeated the Melbourne Heart, Wellington and the Mariners, on penalties, to advance to the grand final.
The victory made Brisbane's Ange Postecoglou the most successful coach in Australian domestic football with four national titles, including two with South Melbourne in the old National Soccer League.
