Zac Sapsford was the match winner in an ugly away trip to Perth where sparkling football was nowhere to be seen.
Alen Stajcic returned to Perth Glory the team he lead to last placed in the 2023/24 A-League season. This time around however he was in charge of the Western Sydney Wanderers. Despite his good performance in the Perth drought busting win last weekend, Jarrod Carluccio was omitted from the squad entirely, suggesting that the rumours of his return to Parramatta had some meat on the bones. In his place was 18 year old midfielder Will Freney making his A-League starting debut.
The game started brilliantly for the visitors as they recieved a gift as a result of a slip in the box from former Wanderer Tomislav Mrcela. Jack Clisby delivered a ball into the box that Borrello hit first time, Glory keeper Oli Sail could only shovel it into the path of his Mrcela but the defender slipped at the vital moment and kicked the ball into Andriano Lebib, deflecting the ball past Sail. Nick Pennington was forced off in the 15th minute due to injury and his replacement was Brandon O'Neill.
The middle third of the half was calmer than the opening, as neither team found any sense of rhythm, Glory having trouble making their longer passes stick while the Wanderers saw Jack Clisby get caught in possession twice and give the ball away to the opposition three times on simple short passes. Clisby was lucky to avoid a yellow card in a midfield collision where he went leaping hard into the back of the Glory defender.
There was a controversial moment 5 minutes before the break, as Perth were awarded a handball right on the edge of the box. Joshua Brillante was marking a back to goal Glory attacker and with an arm legally on the shoulder of the attacker the ball was flicked up into his arm. The crowd wanted a penalty but none was forthcoming. O'Neill lined up the free kick on his right, getting it over the wall but not down again.
A foul against Sapsford was turned into a pair of chances, the free kick was cleared but only as far as Milanovic who booted it back and forced a good save from Sail. The rebound ended up with Mata and his clipped ball to the back post where Kraev jumped backward and made weak contact, perhaps blocking Alex Bonetig from heading it goal-ward from his forward run. It was the final good chance of the half and the teams went to the break with the Red & Black up by one with a lead they probably deserved on the balance of play.
Perth were level minutes into the second. Lawrence Thomas invited the high press then tried a cute chip that Perth intercepted, they were on the attack in a flash and who else but Adam Taggart was on the end of the move, his run at the near post easily beat an unbalanced, falling Brillante and he made enough contact to send it over Thomas to earn his 4th goal of the season.
Western Sydney should have had the chance to regain their lead from the penalty spot in the 55th minute when Sapsford was cleaned up inside the box after delivering a cross. Mrcela came in without any control was late and missed the ball completely and Sapsford was lucky to avoid injury as the scissoring lunge hammered him in the ankles.
Sapsford took his revenge quickly, another mistake from Sail with a poorly taken goal kick that fell in midfield to Milanovic, he played it forward quickly with Sapsford outsprinting the defence then going around the hapless Sail who was in no man's land and couldn't even get close enough to make a diving save attempt. The angle was narrow but Sapsford made no mistake with his last involvement of the match to restore the Wanderers advantage.
Sapsford, Mata and Perth's Freney made way in the 62nd minute with Marcus Antonsson and Dean Pelekanos on for Western Sydney and Joel Anasmo for Perth. Milanovic left in the 70th minute with Aydan Hammond on to play wing. And then the pitch sprinklers came on, causing a short delay. Zach Lisolajski almost put the Glory level when Thomas came out to punch a cross but missed completely, the touch from Lisolajski was just wide to the groans of the home faithful. Taggart also sent a snap-shot over the bar following a penalty area scramble. Borrello was having a poor game and compounded it with a pair of misses, the second being an awful shot he sent into the car park when he was unmarked from 9 yards out.
The last throws of the dice from the bench arrived along with stoppage time. Nathaniel Blair, a former Wanderer whose great NPL form last season earned him a deal with Perth came on with Ghazi Faisal with the ineffectual Jaylan Pearman & Trent Oslter leaving. Blair's former employers brought on James Temelkovski and Alex Badolato for Borrello & Kraev as the 5 minutes stoppage time was shown. Perth tried in vain to level the match, the Wanderers failing to close the game with a 3rd but ultimately coming away 2-1 winners in this scrappy match to put themselves within striking distance of the top 6.
The Wanderers next match is against the Central Coast Mariners on Friday the 17th of January in Parramatta with kick-off at 7:35pm.
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