Twenty-day wait for Allira Toby's Canberra United debut pays off, before Grace Maher stepped up

The striker was instrumental in setting up sharpshooter Michelle Heyman to open the scoring for Canberra United in Thursday's 3-3 comeback against Brisbane Roar.

Head coach Vicki Linton said Toby was not ready to take the field for the opening two rounds of the A-League Women's season.

Against the Roar, however, she was.

"She's a really talented player, and she's really unique. You saw her quality," Linton said.

"She hasn't played for a while. For her to come in and have such an impact I'm just really pleased and proud of that."

Linton's side began with a new first XI, with Hayley Taylor-Young and Toby starting and Margot Robinne and Ash Sykes rested. Laura Hughes was pushed to the bench, sitting alongside a new face in Mikayla Vidmar, who made her ALW debut in the fixture.

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The winning combination was supported by another change, a 4-3-3 to a 3-4-3 to push Karly Roestbakken into the midfield setup, and Lauren Keir to right back, alongside Ally Horan in the centre and Emma Ilijoski on the left.

"I think it's only up from here," Toby said.

"So I can't wait to get fitter and be out there for longer."

Toby recorded an assist next to her name during her 65-minute stint, before she passed the scoring duties on to Grace Maher.

Roar seemed to destined for its first win as it led 3-1 with three minutes of regulation time to play, before Maher's free-kick changed everything in the 87th minute to make it 3-2.

The midfielder was not done yet, however, as she set up the equaliser six minutes later. During a corner's second-phase she crossed the ball to find Holly Caspers, gifting her her first ALW goal and securing United its first point of the season.

Linton was left dealing with deva ju from last season, where her side left it to the dying minutes in several matches to secure points.

She said it was about certain players making a difference at the right time, in a nod to Maher's impact in levelling the scores.

"It's stressful. It's frustrating," she said.

"I love to see that spirit again to get a result right at the end but we shouldn't have put ourselves in that position. We made it a little bit hard for ourselves.

"It's a bit later than I would like, but I'm just glad for the players that they got something out of that game. I think we deserve that out of our first three games, we deserved something."

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