Socceroos coach Holger Osieck takes positives from friendly loss to Romania Socceroos players celebrate Luke Wilkshire's goal against Romania on the strike of half-time. EVEN in the freezing climate of a wintery southern Spain, Socceroos coach Holger Osieck insisted there was much to warm his heart despite a 3-2 loss to Romania. With an eye on next month's World Cup qualifier with Oman in Sydney, Osieck was content with sections of the friendly in Marbella as his side threw away a 2-1 lead with just minutes to play. In truth, it was a curate's egg of a performance -- sluggish, disjointed, creative, intelligent and finally careless. Romania looked a far slicker outfit in the opening half and put Australia under considerable pressure well before the East Europeans took the lead on 36 minutes. The goal was a disappointment for Mark Schwarzer, who was only able to block a shot back into the path of Christian Tanase for a comfortable finish. But the greater disappointment for the whole team was not seeing out the game after equalising on the stroke of half-time through a Luke Wilkshire penalty then going ahead through another improbable strike by Robert Cornthwaite. The beauty of the equaliser lay in the deft pass from James Holland, starting in midfield, that freed Alex Brosque in the box and drew a foul. Cornthwaite's goal, stabbed in from a post-corner melee, was his third in sixth games after only forcing his way into the national team late last year. With Lucas Neill suspended for the qualifier with Oman, Cornthwaite is now clearly in pole position to start that game, especially as Rhys Williams looked off the pace. The whole defence was caught napping when Romania turned the back four in the 80th minute, with Bogdan Stancu turning in a cutback from Alexandru Maxim. Worse was to follow for Williams, who came on in the second half for Neill, as he clumsily hauled down Torje in the penalty area. Australia escaped with conceding just a free kick, but Torje rose to sweep it into the top corner. "When there is a couple of changes (substitutions), there is always a change in the game," Osieck told Fox Sports. This time it was at the expense of a victory, but on the other hand I think we had so many chances in the second half and we should have finished that off. That is what you have to pay for if you don't score but all-in-all, I think in particular (the) second half we did pretty well. We showed great commitment and I think it was a very positive performance from my point of view.