SFC Steal Derby Win

Sydney FC took advantage of poor officiating and a lucky deflection to steal the 2nd Sydney Derby of the A-League season 1-0 in Parramatta tonight.

The Wanderers named recent signings Nicolas Milanovic and Morgan Schneiderlin on the bench, while Tom Beadling made his first appearance on the bench, setting up his potential debut for the Wanderers after a long bout with injury. Amor Layouni the Wanderers new foreign attacker was watching on from the stands after his very recent arrival in country.

The visitors had the best of the opening 10 minutes, controlling most of the possession and winning some set pieces that came to nothing. 11 minutes in the Wanderers had a shout for a penalty as Gabriel Cleur crossed toward the box only to have it intercepted by Alex Wilkinson. Wilkinson was involved in another controversy minutes later when a late, studs up lunge that impacted Brandon Borrello in the leg wasn't even punished with a yellow card when a red card was definitely on the table.

Sydney FC took the lead in the 17th minute, Max Burgess dribbled past Marcelo then fired on goal from the outside of the box, a left footed thunderbolt that took a massive deflection from Tomislav Mrcela that rocketed the ball over and past Lawrence Thomas in the Wanderers goal.

The night went from bad to worse for the Red & Black when their talisman Captain, Marcelo, exited the game with a groin injury. He had been playing hurt for a while and his body finally gave way with Beadling his replacement. Yeni Ngbakoto had a shot at goal in the 41st minute, forcing a save out of Andrew Redmayne to turn it away for a corner that eventually resulted in a header from Oli Bozanic that didn't threaten.

Sydney FC spent the rest of the half time wasting, falling on the pitch wit dubious injuries, including a moment where Adam Le Fondre rolled on and off the pitch twice, sparking a mini-melee between the teams. The officials declined to add more than a bare minimum to stoppage time, letting Sydney FC off the hook to go into the half-time break 1-0 up.

Upon the resumption Burgess wasn't far from his second, he sliced through the middle of the defensive line unmarked but couldn't get himself onto the end of a strong cross into the middle. Patrick Wood shot from a long way out, worrying Thomas into a full length dive that wouldn't have stopped a goal if it had been on target.

Milanovic entered in place of Jarrod Carluccio, returning to the Western Sydney Stadium after playing for Western United the week prior, and following him on was Ninkovic, hoping to give the Wanderers some sorely needed attacking quality.

Play stopped for yet another Sydney FC fake injury, and during the pause the VAR decided to call over the referee to have a look at a little bit of slap & tickle between Retre and Ngbakoto. With the most minor of contact on Retre the non-call was overturned into a red card for Ngbakoto who was furious and protested all the way off the pitch and up the tunnel. Coach Marko Rudan picked up another yellow card for approaching the VAR monitor during the review. Perhaps next time Yeni should kick his opponent in the legs with his studs and he'd get away without punishment.

Beadling thought he'd scored on debut, when after a free kick he won the ball in a penalty area contest then fired home from 10 yards deep. Unfortunately the ball that came across to Beadling was from Mrcela in an offside position. Despite being a man down the Wanderers desperation saw them drive forward, forcing Sydney FC to fall back deep into their own half with every man behind the ball. While the Wanderers gave the heart in the dying stages, they couldn't find a chance to level it, Sydney FC running out stoppage time by desperately lying on the turf pretending to be hurt to eek out precious seconds until the ref blew full time the instant the indicated 6 minutes was up.

They scarcely deserved a point, let alone all three, but took them they did, pulling to within 1 point of the Wanderers on the A-League ladder with prior results dropping WSW down to 4th place and pending other results possibly out of the top 6 by the end of next week.

The Wanderers next match is against Adelaide United, in Adelaide on Sunday the 17th of February with kick-off at 3pm.