Sapsford Gets Job Done With Jets Gift

[mack]

The Wanderers travelled to Newcastle along with a large away supporter contingent as the Red & Black looked to secure finals football with a draw or win, and they picked up the victory with a goal from Zac Sapsford that came from a bad error at the back from the Jets defensive unit.

Josh Brillante returned to the line-up after his short injury lay-off with Dean Pelekanos left out of the squad entirely to make room. The other change was Zac Sapsford being dropped to the bench following his 6th match without a goal, Aydan Hammond earning his first start in over a month in his place. There were reports in the media that attacker Nicolas Milanovic would be on his way out of the club at seasons end with a reported $800,000 transfer sale to Scottish side Aberdeen.

The Wanderers had a bright start, with Milanovic attempting an audacious bicycle kick but his ambition didn't match his technique, Borrello had a deflected shot that became a throw but the Jets found a counter-attack that caused Oscar Priestman to give away a foul and a yellow card to stop a potential overload. The remove of Sapsford caused a tactical shuffle with Milanovic playing up front, Hammond on the wing with Borrello and Bozhidar Kraev rotating between the left wing and the central attacking midfield role.

The former Wanderer fullback Thomas Aqulina produced a cross in the 10th minute that had Anthony Pantazopoulos at full stretch to ensure it wouldn't reach Lachie Rose at the back post, and the corner went over the top of everyone and out for a throw on the far side. Borrello produced a great through ball for Milanovic, piercing the defence and giving Milanovic a first time shot on his left that Ryan Scott was well positioned for and saved easily. Milanovic had another chance moments later from a cross, the ball seemed to take a touch on the way through and it was enough to drop it down at chest height and stop Milanovic getting power & direction.

Pantazopoulos got himself in the right place once against as Eli Adams & Kota Mizunuma combined with some tricks & flicks to find space for a blocked cross. In the 27th minute the Wanderers put together a long sequence of passing that ended with Hammond taking a shot on the right that took a bobble and launched into the fans behind the goal. Pantazopoulos then got himself in the referees notebook by pulling down Rose on halfway when he had cover defence coming across to claim the ball. Milanovic continued his strong work with a right flank attack that needed Scott to save at the near post for a corner that Milanovic was once again involved with beating Mizunuma at the back post but not able to power it toward goal. The visitors continued to pile on the pressure with a high turnover, Hammond winning a wide free kick from Clayton Taylor. Alex Gersbach wasted the FK, blazing it over everyone for a goal kick. Pantazopoulos got himself into trouble in the 38th minute after he let the ball bounce over his head for Rose, the second bounce was just too high for Rose to shoot on goal before Pantazopoulos came flying in from the rear to clear the ball away from danger.

In the final minute both teams had long range strikes, Milanovic once again failed to find the target and central defender Aleksandar Susnjar strode forward into the Wanderers half and fired into the crowd from 30 yards out. The Wanderers had the better of the game, more possession and shots but couldn't find the final ball to take the lead. Alen Stajcic made an immediate change at half-time, bringing on Jarrod Carluccio for Gabriel Cleur and Zac Sapsford for Hammond.

Borrello had a glorious chance to make it 1-0 seconds after the break, Gersbach was in open space on the left wing, he fired into Borrello on the penalty spot who took a touch to bring it back around only to fire it well wide of goal.

The game was broken open by a horrendous error at the back from the Newcastle Jets defenders, a horrible giveaway by Aquilina who failed to find Grozos with a 10 meter pass, it left Grozos alone with Borrello & Sapsford, neither made a mistake looking the gift horse in the mouth with Sapsford finding the back of the net with Scott having no chance. His first goal in 7 games and the half-time sub justified from Stajcic. Daniel Wilmering went flying into the back of Milanovic, flattening the Wanderer and being the first Jets player on a booking.

Mizunuma forced a good save out of Lawrence Thomas in the 66th minute, the Wanderers playing around in midfield instead of driving forward and gave it away. 20 minutes from full time Sapsford should have had a second, fancy footwork from Borrello made room for a Gersbach cross along the ground but Sapsford got his feet in a tangle as the ball was slightly behind him, it was just enough to cut the power down for Scott to make the save.

Rose should have had the equaliser in the 72nd minute, a failure to clear the ball by Pantazopoulos and Brillante let Eli Adams have the ball on the by-line and his cutback found Rose and at short range his shot was the wrong side of the post.

The drama continued at the other end with Susnjar clearly dragging down Sapsford to stop the striker running clean through on goal. Inexplicably the referee saw it not as denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and pulled out a yellow card. The VAR as typical for fouls on the Wanderers, declined to intervene to correct the obvious error and the Jets continued with their full complement. Stajcic made a pair of changes with 10 to go, Borrello ended his enthusiastic night with Antonsson on to play up front, and Juan Mata on for Brillante to keep control in the midfield. The Jets responded with Rose & Taylor off for Dane Ingham and Ben Gibson. Ingham's first involvement was a sliding tackle from behind into the feet of Gersbach and being booked for it.

A typical 4 minutes of stoppage time flashed up with the Jets pushing for an equaliser, the Wanderers unable to hold onto the ball or create a clear cut chance to seal the win. Bayliss created a chance for Ingham but his cross was woeful. Stajcic made a final time wasting sub with Mo Al-Taay for Priestman. The Jets threw the kitchen sink in the final seconds, with the keeper Ryan Scott going up for a late corner, but they couldn't get what might have been described as a well earned point, the Wanderers holding on for the 1-0 win, all three points, their finals placed locked in and a provisional 3rd place on the A-League ladder.

The Wanderers next match is the final game of the regular season, against Macarthur FC in Campbelltown on Saturday the 3rd of May with kick-off at 7:35.

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[sonar]

Ugly win.....which is better than a glorious loss.

Onwards.

[pseudonym]

 

[Smoggy]

Not pretty..but job done..

Fancy us to finish the job next weekend. 

I will be back in Sydney next Thursday so will go to final game. Should be decent crowd.

[Unlimited]

2 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Not pretty..but job done..

Fancy us to finish the job next weekend. 

I will be back in Sydney next Thursday so will go to final game. Should be decent crowd.

Would love to go next week but I’ll be at home watching election coverage 

[JustWandering]

I think Priestman is a rival to Milanovic for most improved player this season. We lost all momementum on the right when Carluccio came on for Cleur. Cleur always puts us on the front foot by his courage to play forward. Carluccio has Clisbyitis, a condition that even Clisby is cured from.

Edited Saturday at 09:16 AM by JustWandering

[Smoggy]

2 minutes ago, Unlimited said:

Would love to go next week but I’ll be at home watching election coverage 

I would see going to the football as an opportunity to get away from the election coverage...

Edited Saturday at 09:15 AM by Smoggy

[matty]

Ugly win, but a win. 

[mack]

Really need a big convincing win next weekend to go into finals with momentum. Weird to say on an 11 game unbeaten run but the last month hasn't been convincing.

[Smoggy]

2 minutes ago, mack said:

Really need a big convincing win next weekend to go into finals with momentum. Weird to say on an 11 game unbeaten run but the last month hasn't been convincing.

While we haven't been playing at our best we have got the job done. We have had a hard run of games over the last month and credit to Newcastle who I thought fought hard tonight.

I agree though, we need a decent performance next weekend to end on a high.

[HillsPanther]

Another case of playing down to inferior teams. They need to get the opposition's ladder position out of their head. Need to imagine they are Auckland or City$.

[WanderingToquii]

If we miraculously finish 2nd and qualify for the Asian Champions League, do you think we'd bring in some new foreigners? Or would Stajcic stay true to his word and just use yoof?

[WHACKO]

26 minutes ago, Unlimited said:

Would love to go next week but I’ll be at home watching election coverage 

You mean erection coverage. I can tell you the result now.

One cock will be elected the other prick won't and the only loser will be the people of Australia yet again. 

[Wanderboy]

I honestly think that if 12 weeks ago, we would have been promised an 11 game unbeaten streak, we all would have taken it.

Not every performance has been perfect, nor even convincing. Like tonight.

Yet, we keep getting the job done. Yes, we've had some luck along the way. We've also had some very impressive performances. And there's been games that with a bit of luck or better discipline, we should have won. It still kills me that being up 3-1 against the east at their home ground with 8 minutes to play, we let them back into the game and dropped two vital points. What's done is done now. 

Without doubt, we actually have the team and the capacity to win our first title. It will need some luck on any particular day, like the ACL win in Saudi Arabia, but we are in this comp with a massive shot. 

I'm very excited. First time in a ******* decade tbh.  

 

[EmMac]

We need to time our passes better. We invite way too much pressure on the ball.  We need to be much stronger than that performance 

But... at the risk of sounding negative when we're actually winning... I'll add that we're unbeaten, we did the job and kept a clean sheet, so onwards into the finals we go 

[immortalshogun]

that was definitely a game alright.

Finals secured at least..lets just hope we have a better outing vs Bulls

[MathyouWSW]

47 minutes ago, WanderingToquii said:

If we miraculously finish 2nd and qualify for the Asian Champions League, do you think we'd bring in some new foreigners? Or would Stajcic stay true to his word and just use yoof?

Probably replace Jeong?

They've scrapped the 3+1 rule now which is good, it's now 5+1. Five foreign players can be on the field with 1 additional but they must be an AFC (Asian) player. 

[StringerBellend]

15 minutes ago, MathyouWSW said:

Probably replace Jeong?

They've scrapped the 3+1 rule now which is good, it's now 5+1. Five foreign players can be on the field with 1 additional but they must be an AFC (Asian) player. 

Not sure it's good being 5+1 favours leagues with money 

[Upthehill]

Pretty meh game. Whilst it wasnt an encouraging performance, I'm glad we've learned how to dig out wins  when we suck instead of completely capitulating and shipping 6 goals. Thats how you build championship seasons.

The only real take aways for me is that despite my earlier assertion, I dont think hammond is quite where he needs to be to carry to right flank next season. Either Younis or a new signing in that RM role, though I'm not even sure Younis is there yet. Before he left he had real trouble with 60 minutes

[Sithslayer1991]

Jets were very strong defensively. But Saps and Borello really should have made more of their chances. Could have been more comfortable, and its those misses that have cost us against City, Auckland amd Sydney.

3 points were needed for a home final. They will need to win again against Macarthur to confirm home final

Edited Saturday at 10:53 AM by Sithslayer1991

[immortalshogun]

We were a much better side when Sapsford came on and i think Hammond isn’t quite there yet. When Mila goes, we need to assess if Younis and Hammond are enough to patch the hole he leaves or if we make an all out play for someone like Segacic or a visa player.

[Themumf79]

2 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Not pretty..but job done..

Fancy us to finish the job next weekend. 

I will be back in Sydney next Thursday so will go to final game. Should be decent crowd.

Tickets booked also but FMD, $40 to visit that shthole. No wonder they are going broke.

[Hughesy]

We’ve become accustomed to either winning by slaughter or coming from behind, all in very open games. We don’t like grinding out contests so to win that tonight impressed me.

[Potkorok]

37 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

We’ve become accustomed to either winning by slaughter or coming from behind, all in very open games. We don’t like grinding out contests so to win that tonight impressed me.

Yep plenty of times in previous years we manage to lose/draw that one. I was pleased with the ugly win. Passes etc bit off tonight though. Hopefully we've got that out of our system and get job done against cows next week

[GE942150]

Do we think Staj will rest players to not risk injuries or suspensions for finals? Or go all out to try and finish 2nd or 3rd?

[PedroPony]

He will definitely want the home final so that will be a factor. Also, he won't even know if 2nd is an option until 30mins before our game starts (smurfs v melb city on at 5pm). I reckons the best bet is to just go all out for the win and try to nail the starting 11 we will use for the finals. 

[Edinburgh]

11 minutes ago, GE942150 said:

Do we think Staj will rest players to not risk injuries or suspensions for finals? Or go all out to try and finish 2nd or 3rd?

No, he'll pick the best available. 

[Hughesy]

We’ve had minimum 6 day turn arounds every week since January and don’t play for another 7 days. I’d be sceptical if anyone needs a rest

[Zelinsky]

Stajcic out

[MathyouWSW]

Staj thanking all those that attended the game tonight: