The Western Sydney Wanderers picked themselves up from a very early Adam Taggart goal to come back and hit four in response, running out clear winners on Sunday afternoon in Parramatta with Aydan Hammond scoring a double along with a goal each for Oscar Preistman and Bozhidar Kraev.
Perth Glory got themselves off to the best possible start, January transfer window signing Yuto Misao found an inch perfect run from Lachie Wales. The Wanderers central defensive duo of Anthony Pantazopoulos & Alex Bonetig put themselves in awful positions while Perth's talismanic striker Adam Taggart made a classic near post run, got between the two defenders and when Wales' cutback bisected the defence Taggart's left foot volley found it's way under Lawrence Thomas and over the line.
Aydan Hammond was in the starting lineup due to a suspension to Nicolas Milanovic and the young winger took full advantage of the opportunity. A deep corner from Jack Clisby was nodded back into the middle by Pantazopoulos, Zac Sapsford knocked it back to Hammond who dribbled onto his right to deceive the two Perth players closing him down and fired a beautiful right footed curling strike from 20 yards out. Oli Sail dived but had no chance and the scores were level with the ball rippling the side netting.
Hammond had a brace in the 38th minute, a transition goal that began with Clisby & Kraev thieving the ball off Taggart in midfield. Borrello sparked the attack into life with a quick outlet ball to Sapsford, his cross along the turf made it past the defence & Sail to Kraev at the back post, he was closed down enough to have his shot blocked into the post but the rebound fell perfectly to Hammond and with the open net he couldn't miss to give the Wanderers the lead 5 minutes from half-time.
Perth nearly took advantage of some slack timekeeping deep into stoppage time. Almost a minute past the indicated time the Glory were given a corner that they whipped into the near post for a flick-on that took a lightning reflex save from Thomas to block away to finally get the teams into the sheds with the Wanderers still a goal to the good.
Perth almost replicated their first half opening goal with Misao in the action yet again, he sprinted onto a loose ball and blasted a 25 yard strike that had Thomas beaten but curled agonisingly into the crossbar before being cleared away. 2 minutes later he had similar but much closer chance inside the box but his aim was further off and he didn't trouble the crossbar or Thomas.
Perth shot themselves in the foot and handed Oscar Priestman the 3rd goal for the home side in the 50th minute. Oli Sail made the worst possible option under no pressure in his own area, a hospital pass to Perth midfielder Luke Amos running toward his own goal. The pass was soft and allowed Josh Brillante to nip in. The close contact had the ball rebound off Brillante or perhaps Amos but either way, Priestman was onside and in perfect position, with no-one but Sail in front of him he turned, aimed and fired past for his first A-League goal of the season.
Hammond nearly had his hat-trick almost off the kick-off, Borrello lobbed it over the top where Hammond, Tomislav Mrclea & Sail came together with the ball squeezing out to the advantage of Hammond who knocked it toward goal, with enough power to have scored if not for Mrcela making a desperate clearance to keep the scoreline to 3-1.
It was 4-1 in the 66th. Bozhidar Kraev had been industrious without much end product up to that point but he benefited from a fast break begun in the defensive third by Gabriel Cleur. The fullback fighting off three Perth players, playing a 1-2 with Hammond then passing it off for Borrello who himself found Sapsford. Perth had thrown too many players forward and it left them with a 3 on 2 defensive situation, Josh Risdon having to cover the central run continued by Cleur leaving the gap for Kraev at the back post and the Bulgarian threaded the needle between Risdon's attempted block and Sail who was covering his near post like a good goalkeeper should.
The usual hour mark substitution flurry was delayed by a good 10 minutes, and when it arrived Perth made three changes and the Wanderers a quadruple. Patrick Wood, Nikola Mileusnic & Amos left with Joel Anasmo, Trent Ostler & Taras Gomulka on for Perth. Clisby, Kraev, Sapsford & Brillante off for the Wanderers for Dean Pelekanos, Marcus Antonsson, Jarrod Carluccio and Alex Gersbach, with Gersbach introducing himself with an immediately yellow card for a heavy challenge. Perth emptied their bench with 10 to play as Nathaniel Blair & Anas Hamzaoui came on for Risdon & Wales. Misao had a third good look at goal with a left foot volley that flashed wide of the far post and left him struggling on the pitch with cramp. Juan Mata entered for the last phase of the match in place of Borrello.
Gersbach clunked a volley into the cross bar as regulation time expired the Wanderers were 4-1 ahead still but looking for more in the 4 minutes of stoppage time, they couldn't do so but it was still more than enough to pickup the three points with a 3 game winning streak as part of a 5 game unbeaten run that stretched back to the end of January. Auckland FC are the runaway leaders but the next 6 teams are within 3 points as the season heads into the climax.
The Wanderers have a bye next weekend, with the next match against Melbourne Victory in Parramatta on Saturday the 15th of March with kick-off at 7:30pm.
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