Jump to content

Hammond Brace Eases Wanderers Past Perth


Recommended Posts

Posted

The Western Sydney Wanderers picked themselves up from a very early Adam Taggart goal to come back and hit four in response, running out clear winners on Sunday afternoon in Parramatta with Aydan Hammond scoring a double along with a goal each for Oscar Preistman and Bozhidar Kraev.

Perth Glory got themselves off to the best possible start, January transfer window signing Yuto Misao found an inch perfect run from Lachie Wales. The Wanderers central defensive duo of Anthony Pantazopoulos & Alex Bonetig put themselves in awful positions while Perth's talismanic striker Adam Taggart made a classic near post run, got between the two defenders and when Wales' cutback bisected the defence Taggart's left foot volley found it's way under Lawrence Thomas and over the line.

Aydan Hammond was in the starting lineup due to a suspension to Nicolas Milanovic and the young winger took full advantage of the opportunity. A deep corner from Jack Clisby was nodded back into the middle by Pantazopoulos, Zac Sapsford knocked it back to Hammond who dribbled onto his right to deceive the two Perth players closing him down and fired a beautiful right footed curling strike from 20 yards out. Oli Sail dived but had no chance and the scores were level with the ball rippling the side netting.

Hammond had a brace in the 38th minute, a transition goal that began with Clisby & Kraev thieving the ball off Taggart in midfield. Borrello sparked the attack into life with a quick outlet ball to Sapsford, his cross along the turf made it past the defence & Sail to Kraev at the back post, he was closed down enough to have his shot blocked into the post but the rebound fell perfectly to Hammond and with the open net he couldn't miss to give the Wanderers the lead 5 minutes from half-time.

Perth nearly took advantage of some slack timekeeping deep into stoppage time. Almost a minute past the indicated time the Glory were given a corner that they whipped into the near post for a flick-on that took a lightning reflex save from Thomas to block away to finally get the teams into the sheds with the Wanderers still a goal to the good.

Perth almost replicated their first half opening goal with Misao in the action yet again, he sprinted onto a loose ball and blasted a 25 yard strike that had Thomas beaten but curled agonisingly into the crossbar before being cleared away. 2 minutes later he had similar but much closer chance inside the box but his aim was further off and he didn't trouble the crossbar or Thomas.

Perth shot themselves in the foot and handed Oscar Priestman the 3rd goal for the home side in the 50th minute. Oli Sail made the worst possible option under no pressure in his own area, a hospital pass to Perth midfielder Luke Amos running toward his own goal. The pass was soft and allowed Josh Brillante to nip in. The close contact had the ball rebound off Brillante or perhaps Amos but either way, Priestman was onside and in perfect position, with no-one but Sail in front of him he turned, aimed and fired past for his first A-League goal of the season.

Hammond nearly had his hat-trick almost off the kick-off, Borrello lobbed it over the top where Hammond, Tomislav Mrclea & Sail came together with the ball squeezing out to the advantage of Hammond who knocked it toward goal, with enough power to have scored if not for Mrcela making a desperate clearance to keep the scoreline to 3-1.

It was 4-1 in the 66th. Bozhidar Kraev had been industrious without much end product up to that point but he benefited from a fast break begun in the defensive third by Gabriel Cleur. The fullback fighting off three Perth players, playing a 1-2 with Hammond then passing it off for Borrello who himself found Sapsford. Perth had thrown too many players forward and it left them with a 3 on 2 defensive situation, Josh Risdon having to cover the central run continued by Cleur leaving the gap for Kraev at the back post and the Bulgarian threaded the needle between Risdon's attempted block and Sail who was covering his near post like a good goalkeeper should.

The usual hour mark substitution flurry was delayed by a good 10 minutes, and when it arrived Perth made three changes and the Wanderers a quadruple. Patrick Wood, Nikola Mileusnic & Amos left with Joel Anasmo, Trent Ostler & Taras Gomulka on for Perth. Clisby, Kraev, Sapsford & Brillante off for the Wanderers for Dean Pelekanos, Marcus Antonsson, Jarrod Carluccio and Alex Gersbach, with Gersbach introducing himself with an immediately yellow card for a heavy challenge. Perth emptied their bench with 10 to play as Nathaniel Blair & Anas Hamzaoui came on for Risdon & Wales. Misao had a third good look at goal with a left foot volley that flashed wide of the far post and left him struggling on the pitch with cramp. Juan Mata entered for the last phase of the match in place of Borrello.

Gersbach clunked a volley into the cross bar as regulation time expired the Wanderers were 4-1 ahead still but looking for more in the 4 minutes of stoppage time, they couldn't do so but it was still more than enough to pickup the three points with a 3 game winning streak as part of a 5 game unbeaten run that stretched back to the end of January. Auckland FC are the runaway leaders but the next 6 teams are within 3 points as the season heads into the climax.

The Wanderers have a bye next weekend, with the next match against Melbourne Victory in Parramatta on Saturday the 15th of March with kick-off at 7:30pm.


View full article

Posted

Excellent game, really. Can't really fault much. We came back from 1-0 down, we know that in previous seasons that we would've crumbled from being behind after like 5 minutes.

Some of the attacking football is really just beautiful to watch, some of the cross-field passing, intricate dribbling, and player movement was just a joy to watch.

Next game against Victory is gonna be big!

Posted

Look Perth are **** or whatever but teams of the last decade would have let them back in in stupid ways, and they also kept going at them till the final whistle, which, again, wouldn't have happened.

Our side is still not the best going. Staj still might win any awards, but there's plenty there to work with and they are improving. Like I've been saying, been warming to the side as a whole in ways I haven't for quite some time.

Posted

After we conceded the fist goal I was thinking here we go....but to the teams credit they rallied and played great football.

Hammond and Sapsford were great up front.

Sure we made errors, but on the whole we were the better team by far and deserved the win.

Onwards.

Posted
9 minutes ago, EmMac said:

A lovely way to spend a Sunday evening :woah:

We're 3rd or 4th on the ladder now, right??

Adelaide in 3rd on 32 points

WSW are 4th on 31 points. City also have 31 points, but our goal difference is better (+11 compared to +8)

Posted
7 minutes ago, EmMac said:

A lovely way to spend a Sunday evening :woah:

We're 3rd or 4th on the ladder now, right??

4th due to our +3 goal difference advantage over City.

We have a bye next weekend. Unfortunately the matchups aren't great for us, it's all top 6 vs bottom teams & City also have a mid-week game vs the Jets.

Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, mack said:

4th due to our +3 goal difference advantage over City.

We have a bye next weekend. Unfortunately the matchups aren't great for us, it's all top 6 vs bottom teams & City also have a mid-week game vs the Jets.

We have had to win 3 on the bounce just to get us in the mix, and have done well to do so..Coming from so far back means we will bounce up and down...

All we can do is keep winning our games and we will cement a finals place....

Just be happy we are in the mix again for now... Not worried about others so much.

Edited by Smoggy
Posted (edited)

Its been a long time since I have looked forward to a game as  much as Vic in a few weeks. 

In form, Saturday night under lights, atmosphere coming back...

Bring it on!

Meal and beers in parra pre game n all!

Edited by Smoggy
Posted (edited)

Great game from a wanderers perspective. Decent game from a football perspective
 

Hammond, Scicluna, Panta, Bonetig, Sapsford all coming good at the same time.

I’ll even say Priestman has improved as a ball playing midfielder. Our 38 training pitches are finally paying off.

Genuinely excited about the MVFC game, should be a cracker. We’ve just bullied 3 pretty weak teams, so I’m still shy of being convinced of Stajic’s capability, but putting the sword to MV and Auckland and you can put me in the Staj camp

Edited by Upthehill
Posted
18 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

Great game from a wanderers perspective. Decent game from a football perspective
 

Hammond, Scicluna, Panta, Bonetig, Sapsford all coming good at the same time.

I’ll even say Priestman has improved as a ball playing midfielder. Our 38 training pitches are finally paying off.

Genuinely excited about the MVFC game, should be a cracker. We’ve just bullied 3 pretty weak teams, so I’m still shy of being convinced of Stajic’s capability, but putting the sword to MV and Auckland and you can put me in the Staj camp

Scicluna is so good he's recovered from an ACL in 2 months!!

;)

Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Erebus said:

Scicluna is so good he's recovered from an ACL in 2 months!!

;)

I meant in terms of this season not so much the last 3 weeks :D I’m aware we’ve seen the end of him for this season, but it bodes well for next season

Edited by Upthehill
Posted

40 points for me is the goal. Reminder in every season no team with 40 points or higher has ever missed finals. The teams are starting drop off. Its really the Smurfs and Victory at the back end.

 

The Victory game is massive. 3 points and finals are in touching distance. A draw isn't horrible either. 7 games remain We need at least 3 wins.

Posted
13 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

40 points for me is the goal. Reminder in every season no team with 40 points or higher has ever missed finals. The teams are starting drop off. Its really the Smurfs and Victory at the back end.

 

The Victory game is massive. 3 points and finals are in touching distance. A draw isn't horrible either. 7 games remain We need at least 3 wins.

Two weeks feels too long to wait for the next game,

Posted
27 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

What happened at the front of the RBB at half time?

1) Club & RBB spent the week encouraging people into the RBB, with discounted tickets.
2) More people in the RBB = “justified” over-the-top security/policing (🤑🤑)
3) Fan inadvertently puts foot on ledge during goal celebrations. 
4) Fan was then escorted out. 

Posted
12 minutes ago, 102megan said:

1) Club & RBB spent the week encouraging people into the RBB, with discounted tickets.
2) More people in the RBB = “justified” over-the-top security/policing (🤑🤑)
3) Fan inadvertently puts foot on ledge during goal celebrations. 
4) Fan was then escorted out. 

Is that what it was putting a foot on a ledge? 

Posted
1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

Two weeks feels too long to wait for the next game,

Yep we are on a run

Posted
1 hour ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

40 points for me is the goal. Reminder in every season no team with 40 points or higher has ever missed finals. The teams are starting drop off. Its really the Smurfs and Victory at the back end.

 

The Victory game is massive. 3 points and finals are in touching distance. A draw isn't horrible either. 7 games remain We need at least 3 wins.

Our aim should be 2nd and a champions league spot.

 

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...