The Wanderers survived a late fright to jump 5 points clear in the Premiership race with a 4-3 win against Melbourne City tonight.
Western Sydney came into the 1v2 contest knowing they had yet to really hit their attacking stride, and City were on the back foot early as key central defender Patrick Kisnorbo went off with an injury. 10 minutes in Vidosic had the first real chance of the game, as a cross from Nichols took a slight deflection by Osama Malik that knocked the ball into Vidosic's chest.
Bruno Fornaroli should have opened the scoring in the 12 minute after being played in by Harry Novillo. Instead of the clinical finishing people had come to expect, he instead put a toepoke just wide.
Mitch Nichols made them pay, as he & Bridge combined on the half-hour mark. Bridge took receipt of a neat pass from Andreu, before laying a cute through ball for Nichols, who took a touch to evade the defence before rolling the ball past Thomas Sorensen. The 1-0 lead was taken into the break but the general feeling was that it would be a matter of time before more goals would flow for the league leaders.
The Bridge & Nichols combination doubled the Wanderers lead, this time with Nichols turning provider, his break down the right flank turning the City defence around. Bridge used a Vidosic run as a decoy, stopped in his tracks to receive a cutback from Nichols before blasting a powerful strike into the top right corner.
The 3rd was another Nichols & Bridge special, Nichols chipping Sorensen who had flown out to the edge of the area but missed completely, Bridge guaranteeing the goal with a tap-in from a meter out.
Melbourne City are a team noted for their individual brilliance in attack, and they began a comeback through Novillo who took on Topor-Stanley and finished with a pin-point shot to the back post, the second from Fornarolli who scored another of his trademark no lift curling shots into the corner.
Anthony Caceres, who joined Melbourne City on loan from global powerful Manchester City killed his new sides chances of taking anything from the game with his dismissal in the 85th minute, two yellow cards accrued from awful challenges.
Brendan Santalab gave Western Sydney more breathing room with his 89th minute tap-in, Romeo Castelen breaking the static City defensive line before working the angles for a cut-back to the unmarked Wanderers striker. City scored a late consolation through Erik Paartalu, who got the faintest of touches onto a City free kick, but it was too little too late for the his side.
The Wanderers head down to Melbourne next weekend for a Saturday clash with Melbourne Victory.
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