Red & Black Christmas Cracker

The Wanderers hit back from a dismal last round draw to dominate a tired looking Wellington Phoenix and win the game 4-1 to deliver three points heading into Christmas.

An injury to Anthony Pantazopoulos saw Dean Pelekanos make his first A-League start. Rumours of a lack of Jack Clisby or Brandon Borrello were unfounded and both started. Juan Mata continued his bench-bound existence with Dylan Scicluna & Joshua Brillante favoured in midfield while Jesse Cameron had an opportunity to make his A-League debut off the bench.

The game began brilliantly for the Wanderers, a poor ball forward turned to gold when Phoenix left fullback Isaac Hughes slipped base over apex, Borrello had run in behind and kept himself onside. This left him with a simple cutback to Zac Sapsford, who was left unmarked by a Nix defence more eager to run towards their goal-line than to mark an opponent. The right foot finish was perfect, beating a defensive block and giving keeper Josh Oluwayemi no chance. 1-0 in th 47th second for one of the quickest goals so far this season.

In the 9th minute Western Sydney made it 2-0 with a sumptuous team goal, Nicolas Milanovic pounced in the midfield to steal the ball away from Tim Payne, he ran deep into the Nix half, found Borrello on the right inside the box and with the Yellow-shirted defence at Nixes and Sevens, his touch inside was met by the boot of Bozhidar Kraev and he slammed in his second goal of the A-League season and the first against his former club.

Wellington stabilised in the next half hour, but with no real threats. The closest was a through ball for Kosta Barbarouses that Lawrence Thomas ran out to the edge of his area and with a slide tackle cleared the ball away when any mistake threatened a penalty or red card. There was a brief drinks break and then one for a potential concussion check for Alex Bonetig. Borrello had an ambitious left foot strike in the 33rd minute, a volley from a Sapsford setup that looked for all money to be heading into the back of the net only to reverse swing like a cricket ball away from the post. The final chance came from Hideki Ishige, the Japanese midfielder blasting it into the RBB from a mile away when the better option was clearly to keep running forward. The 2-0 lead was well deserve, the Nix having trouble impressing themselves on the game at either end, making mistakes in defence and having trouble dealing with the Wanderers pressing.

Giancarlo Italiano made two changes at the break, taking off the ineffective duo Sam Sutton & Paulo Retre and replacing them with two young palyers in Nathan Barry Walker & Matthew Sheridan. 10 minutes into the half Milanovic smashed the ball off the near post with a slight deflection, and not long after he took one of his trademark cuts onto his left for a curling effort that just flew wide.

Despite the good start the Wanderers allowed the Nix back into the game with a gift for the visitors first goal of the game. For more than a minute the defence lazily passed it back and sideways, Wellington inevitably figured they had to put some pressure on the passes and it paid dividends after watching 25 passes, Lawrence Thomas picked out a Wellington attacker. Sheridan and Payne played a 1-2, the combination & run beat Clisby on the flank, the cross was touched by Thomas but not enough to clear. It popped up at the back stick where an attacking header bounced off Ishige's chest and from 2 yards out his only option was an overhead kick that he roofed under the crossbar to make it 2-1.

Alen Stajcic sent for reinforcements with Sapsford & Kraev leaving for Aydan Hammond & Marcus Antonsson, the Swedish supersub having an instant impact as he restored the Wanderers two goal lead in the 66th minute. Hammond opened the space on the right for Gabriel Cleur's overlapping run, Antonsson was in the perfect position at the near post and a first time cross met a first time shot from point-blank range past the keeper with Antonsson's first touch of the match making it 3-1.

The two subs combined again to create chances, Milanovic finding a great run from Antonsson and his short pass gave Hammond a clear sight on goal that Oluwayemi came out strongly to save. Off the rebounds the Nix were lucky to avoid an own goal with a pinball moment 6 yards out with multiple deflections ended with a Nix goal kick. Italiano emptied the bench with 15 to go, a triple sub with Kazuki Nagasawa, Ishige and Huges off for Lukas Kelly-Heald, Luke Brooke-Smith & former Wanderers youth prospect Mohamed Al-Taay on. Stajic used his second sub window to introduce Mata & James Temelkovski for Borrello & Brillante. Bonetig made a great play in defence when the Nix countered and created a 2 on 1 situation, he spotted the danger of a cross to the far post and just managed to reach out to prevent the tap-in. Clisby made way late for Preistman, causing a reshuffle in the defensive line. In the final seconds Thomas saved the team from a nervous last minute with a point blank save and recovery from an unmarked shot by Corban Piper.

Dylan Scicluna had been a monster in the midfield and he was seeking his first goal in the A-League all game long and he had it in the 94th minute with a wonderful long range strike. A wild sequence of crosses, blocks, shots that ended with the ball at the feet of Scicluna, who took aim, fire and scored from 20 yards out with a rocket onto the crossbar and over the line. VAR threatened to intervenue but eventually let the goal stand and full time came with the Wanderers taking all 3 points with their 4-1 win jumping them into 6th place before the final game of the round between Macarthur & the Mariners will put at least one of them back ahead on points.

The Wanderers next match is against Adelaide United in Adelaide on Friday the 27th of December with kick-off at 7:35PM EDT.