ROAR fullback Corey Brown has slammed his former teammate Mitch Nichols for rudely taunting downcast Brisbane fans after Western Sydney Wanderers’ thrilling 5-4 A-League semi-final win at Pirtek Stadium.

A shattered Roar squad returned to Brisbane on Monday, still coming to terms with their season being over after losing on Sunday night despite leading 3-0 after just 23 minutes.

Brown, who along with rest of Brisbane’s defence had a tough night coping with Wanderers’ hat-trick hero Romeo Castelen, said it would take time to get over the defeat and a season which promised plenty, but ultimately failed to land the Roar silverware.

Western Sydney Wanderers midfielder Mitch Nichols gives a two-fingered salute to Brisbane Roar fans on Sunday night. Source: Getty Images

He also felt for the Roar supporters who made the trip to Sydney, and said they deserved better than to be given a two-fingered salute after the match from a Queenslander who won two titles with the club.

“I didn’t rate that at all and I thought that was pretty disrespectful from Mitchy,” Brown told The Courier-Mail.

“I know he probably hasn’t always had the best relationship with the Roar crowd in the past, but he won on the night, so there was no need for him to do that.”

Brown said Nichols had “went out of his way” and “ran a good 50 metres” to provoke the Brisbane fans.

“I was pretty much right in front of him when he started doing it. I told him to pull his head in … then he ran off ‘wooing’.

“It’s poor. He’d won the game, he’s in a grand final, our fans our hurting, so there’s no need to rub salt into the wounds.”

And the wounds were gaping after the Wanderers’ miracle comeback.

At 3-0 up and with one foot in a fourth grand final in six season, the Roar were flying to the point where even their players found it hard to believe the magnitude of their early advantage.

“I remember running back into position with Thomas (Broich) after our third goal and we both looked at each other as if to say ‘is this serious?’” Brown said.

“We were all telling each other to stay switched on, defensively especially. But once they got their two goals before halftime, they had a fair bit of momentum rolling and we just couldn’t hold them off.”

Brown tried to look on the bright side of a season in which the Roar exceeded outside expectations after being in financial turmoil last year.

“Everyone tipped us to miss the six because of all our off-field dramas,” he said.

“It’s all a learning curve. We’ve got to come back stronger next season.”

Roar coach John Aloisi was adamant Brisbane would rebound strongly from the disappointment of missing out on both the premiership and the championship.

“The younger players especially — Jamie Maclaren, Jack Hingert, Dimi Petratos, (James) Donachie, Corey Brown — they’ll learn from this,” Aloisi said.

“Hopefully if we get on that situation again, we’ll be on the winning side.

“(Tomorrow) we’ll get together, we’ll talk about the season then we’ll have individual meetings and start to prepare for next season.”