The Western Sydney Wanderers headed to Wollongong Stadium for the first time ever to take on the Wellington Phoenix and the Nix earned their first point in Wollongong with a flip-flopping 2-2 draw.
Wellington are based in Wollongong for the A-League season due to the border situation with New Zealand, giving the Wanderers a short bus trip down the coast instead of a long flight. Jordan Mutch and Mitchell Duke have a chance to make their season debuts off the bench having finished their quarantine time in recent days. A win for the Wanderers would catapult them into outright 2nd on the A-League ladder while the Nix were looking to escape their dismal position at the foot of the table. Wellington's biggest personell change was a goalkeeper swap to put Oliver Sail in the net.
Ziggy Gordon had an early chance from a corner 2 minutes in, the Nix defended it well and turned it away for a corner on the other side and another minutes later that flashed wide of goal. Wellington went up the other end and Rene Piscopo turned Illawarra junior Tate Russell inside out before firing into the 6 yard box to win a corner.
Wellington took the lead in the 8th minute, they carved the Wanderers open in the middle, leaving a hole in the centre of midfield for Ulises Davila who turned and put Mirza Muratovic in on goal. The striker split the defense, shot into a save from Daniel Margush only to easily pick up the rebound and pass it around the unfortunate keeper for a 1-0 lead.
The 15th minute saw a flurry of Wellington activity, first Clayon Lewis fired a long range speculative effort from a free kick then Piscopo hammered a curling strike into the crossbar with Margush beaten. Nicolai Muller had the visitor's first shot in a long time with his 21st minute shot over the bar.
In the last minutes before half-time Muller and Yeboah combined, with Yeboah taking a touch to turn on the ball and shoot hard to force Sail into a diving save. The Wanderers went into the break down a goal, having had a lot of possession but very little to show for it as they failed to break down a full 11 man defensive block.
The Wanderers had a good chance early in the 2nd half, Ibini reacted first after a loose ball, and with the ball on a tight angle he knocked the ball hard and fast past the keeper but Muller was just out of position for what would have been a tap-in. Oliver Sail had a moment of madness that nearly cost his team the lead with an atrocious throw-out that he released backward in the direction of his own goal but without the power required to cause an own goal. He redeemed himself with a good reaching save from a Muller long shot. Yeboah then turned the ball into the keepers hands from a wide free kick. Davila went into the book for a reckless tackle from behind on Muller.
20 minutes to play was enough for Carl Robinson to finally make some subs. He bought on Simon Cox & Bruce Kamau with Muller & Ibini coming off. Kamau didn't take long to get into the game, a nice shot from distance that Sail cleaned up neatly. Wellington were quickly attacking the other end and Davilla added to his shot tally with one that went wide.
Western Sydney finally had a reward for their possession dominance. A planned set piece routine was O'Doherty with a chip to the far post, Baccus volleyed across the face of goal and found Yeboah who had a tap-in of a header that he couldn't miss. Wellington thought they were back on top shortly after with Cameron Waine only for the linesman's flag to deny him with an obvious offside call. Margush was beaten at the near post but rescued by the flag.
Robinson 3rd & 4th subs, Duke & Mutch were a clear marker of intent to take all 3 points and they took the lead straight away. Simon Cox played it out wide for Wilmering and the fullback launched it into the box and found Kamau at the back stick.
The topsy turvey game took another twist in the 77th minute as Wellington made the most from a central free kick. A weak cross was nodded back into the mixer and Loius Fenton got enough contact to knock the ball into the goal to make it 2-2. In the 87th both sides emptied their sub windows, the Nix bringing on Ridenton and the Wanderers replacing Wilmering with Aquilina. The Wanderers threw everything at Wellington but couldn't make a final cross or pass stick and the Nix escaped a game they were largely on the back foot for with a point. When the final whistle blew both sets of players went down on the turf to catch their breath after a hectic game.
The Wanderers next match is against Adelaide United at Parramatta on Saturday February 27th with kick-off at 5:05pm.
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