Dylan Pierias scored his first goal for the Wanderers and the rest of the team held on in a classic defensive showing to take three points and go back to the summit of the A-League mountain.
Milos Ninkovic remained out of the Wanderers squad with his "one week away" injury that's stretched for months now, while Valentino Yuel earned a place in the starting 11 following his debut goal as a sub last weekend in the loss against Melbourne Victory. Adelaide's staff rang the changes after their run of two defeats straight with the most notable the replacement of the central defensive duo by Nick Ansell & Alexandar Popovic.
Western Sydney started well, having failed to do so last week this time around the opening stages were dominated by the home team, winning numerous set pieces but not taking advantage of them, the best chance fell for Marcelo but he was stretching to reach and he nodded it over the bar.
Adelaide should have scored the opener after a disastrous defensive mix-up inside the Wanderers penalty area. As is the style of the modern era, the Wanderers tried to play it out from the back from a goal kick, passing it to Tom Beadling, who then kicked it straight back to keeper Lawrence Thomas, he dallied on the ball long enough to be closed down and challenged, losing the ball for what seemed like a simple tap in, but he scrambled to his right and recovered well enough to block the shot and kill the chance.
15 minutes and the Wanderers defensive injury stocks were added to with Beadling doing what looked like a serious groin injury. He left the pitch shortly after with Oscar Priestman taking Jorrit Hendrix's position in midfield as the Dutch midfielder dropped back for another match as a makeshift central defender.
It had been 5 games since Western Sydney had scored in the first half, and in the 22nd minute they ended that streak with an unusual little dink of a goal from Dylan Pierias. A cross from the left flank or the follow up header across goal, Aidan Simmons came in to keep the ball in the box, it fell for Pierias and he knocked it over his head, turned & stretched out his boot to gently lift it into the air and over the head of Joe Gauci. Marcelo had been threatening at every corner and the 35th minute he almost drew an error out of Gauci as the ball hit the turf in front of the keeper before forcing another save moments later.
Neither team could add to the score before the 2 minutes of stoppage time expired, the teams heading into the break with the Wanderers 1-0 up via the Pierias flick. Adelaide weren't poor by any means, but they weren't capable of finding the final connection as they entered their attacking 3rd. Before the 2nd half restart Adelaide threw on mercurial wonderkid Nestory Irankunda to try and spark their team into life.
Pierias was looking for a double and almost got it in the 64th minute, the Wanderers broke the Adelaide press down the right flank where Antonsson found Pierias with a return ball, the shot hit the side netting. It was the last action of the goalscorer as he left the pitch alongside Simmons & Yuel, their replacements young tyro Marcus Younis, Lachlan Brook the former Adelaide United player and Dyaln Scicluna. Younis was straight into the action, doing defensive duty to win the ball, then breaking to win a corner. With 20 to go Ryan Kitto and Luka Jovanovic exited for Adelaide for Hiroshi Ibusuki and Javi Lopez. Johnny Yull had come on earlier in the match for Luke Duzel.
Adelaide thought they had the equaliser in the 74th minute. Scicluna's foul gave away a free kick that the Reds worked into a long range shot from Irankunda, Thomas was unsighted but went down late to knock the ball away and into the path of an Adelaide player who had strayed into an offside position before he buried the rebound. The flag went up immediately, a clear warning shot with the slimmest of margins in the favour of the Wanderers.
Josh Brillante's stretching lunge smashed into Ryan Tunnicliffe with his studs up into the shin, it was as clear a red card as you can get in the VAR era and the midfielder had to go. Marcelo and Tunnicliffe both picked up yellow cards in the mixer during the delay. Antonsson left as the final sub for WSW, defender Tate Russell coming on for the final 10 minutes, Milanovic went up front to toil a lone road with Brook, Scicluna, Preistman and Younis in the midfield 4. The match set in to a typical 10 v 11 situation, with Adelaide able to pass the ball around the back trying to find an opening out wide. Isias Sanchez was the last man to arrive, replacing Ansell in a like for like role perhaps with Sanchez to push forward into midfield should they win the ball up high.
Irankunda smashed a 25 yard strike with 2 minutes left in regular time, it dipped and swerved and almost had Thomas beaten, all he could do was stick his fists in front of the ball, it bounced back in the middle of the 18 yard box where Marcelo was johnny on the spot to ensure the second effort went nowhere. Marcelo gave away another foul wide out, the cross came in for Lopez and he couldn't do much to aim but it still hit the near post, it bounced around without giving anyone a clear shot and the chance finally ended with an offside. Adelaide press on for a late equaliser, the seconds ticking by agonisingly, Clisby winning it off Irankunda with a perfect tackle to waste another 30 seconds. Adelaide ran out of time, giving the Wanderers a hard fought, stoic back to the wall victory to send them back to the top of the A-League ladder.
The result was a deserved one, Adelaide might have had chances but very few clear cut, the Wanderers took theirs and held on in a rear-guard action to claim the clean sheet. Jorrit Hendrix showed once again his quality and versatility, stepping back into defence after Beadling's injury and showed the steely determination that wins football matches.
The Wanderers next match is against Wellington Phoenix, in Wellington on Saturday the 23rd with kick-off at 3:30pm Sydney time.
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