Macarthur travelled the short distance down the Cumberland/Hume Highway for the final game of Round 19 in a match with huge finals implications that sparked into life in the second half when the Wanderers came back from a goal deficit to take all three points with a goal each to Nicolas Milanovic and the first A-League goal from Gabriel Cleur.
Both sides were coming off score draws, Macarthur a comeback against Western United and the Wanderers their late capitulation that saw Sydney FC score two goals in the final minutes to end their game all square. The Bulls made three changes including Mile Sterjovski giving 33 year old French defender Kevin Boli his A-League debut following his new arrival to Campbelltown. Valere Germain was suspended following his post-game shenanigans that saw him banned for referee abuse. The Wanderers starting 11 remained unchanged from their 3-3 draw, but striker James Temelkovski made way on the bench for a potential A-League debut for junior prospect Alaat Abdul-Rahman.
After a timid start from both sides the first early change was a Macarthur corner, fired into the back post where Harrison Sawyer came off his keeper marking assignment to head it down to Boli who had a fierce shot saved by Lawrence Thomas. Heading quickly to the other end the Wanderers had a chance when Milanovic threaded a through ball for Brandon Borrello and with the defencing coming across he tried a left footed toe-poke like a 1960's NFL kicker, but his attempt was poor, weak and out of play a mile wide. Anthony Pantazopoulos went forward for a pair of corners, the first was wasted but produced a second and that one was crossed to the near post where Pantazopoulos headed it on and flashed it wide of the far post.
20 minutes in and Macarthur had three good chances. Boli had the first from a corner where he came in unmarked but fluffed his lines with a complete mishit. The second was a knock down from the towering Sawyer to Marin Jakolis that he blasted over the bar, and the last from a mistake playing out from the back that the defence recovered well enough to prevent the ball going into the penalty area.
Bozhidar Kraev should have found the opening goal or assist after he was put in on goal by Borrello with a neat first time left footed through ball. Kraev outpaced the cover but instead of cutting it across for Milanovic or Zac Sapsford the Bulgarian striker elected to shape onto his right foot and try to fire it past Filip Kurto at the far post, but missed the target narrowly. Borrello had his own chance from a Sapsford through ball, with Kurto racing out his shot wasn't high enough to chip the keeper and the rebound ended up going out for a goal kick. The set piece warnings continued to come from Sawyer, he shoved off the attention of Kraev from another corner and once again he couldn't get it on target.
5 minutes before the break Sapsford tried to do it all himself, he found space 25 yards out from goal and opened up his body on the right foot for a well aimed curling strike toward the top corner that brought out a high quality diving save from Kurto. The teams closed out the first half with not much further attack and went into the break with the scores still 0-0.
The game hardly deserved a goal but Macarthur got the first and it matched the quality of the game thus far. Jakolis attacked Brillante on the right flank, knocking it beyond the midfielder who was soft as butter despite having the front position after the poor kick on. Instead of blasting it clear Brillante let Jakolis get around him and take the ball back, crossing into the middle where a comedy of errors ended with a potential handball, then two rebounds that ended with Pantazopoulos knocking it into the arm of Cleur and from there into back of his own net for the first goal of the game.
Sapsford should have hit back when he beat the offside trap but failed to take the chance with the urgency it required, his slow jog into the box allowed Kurto to close down the angle and made Sapsford go for power with a high aimed finish that ended in the grandstand. Thomas was the only thing keeping the score at 2-0, after Sawyer nodded it down to the back post from a cross only to be denied by the keeper diving to his left and palming it out for a corner.
Milanovic thought he'd equalised in the 66th minute with a first time left foot volley on the back of a Cleur lobbed through ball, the replay was unconvincing and VAR was going to have to get the set square and protractor out to determine if the game was now level or still at 1-0 to Macarthur. After a long delay the eventual result was announced by Ali Reza Faghani as Milanovic being onside and scoring his 7th A-League goal of the season.
The 71st minute saw the long awaited Wanderers debut of Alex Gersbach, and accompanying him was Aydan Hammond and Marcus Antonsson. Sapsford, Clisby & Kraev exiting the contest. 3 minutes later Macarthur made their first changes, Saif-Eddine Kahoui for De Silva & Ivan Vujica for Scott.
Gabriel Cleur made for his own goal in the most outrageous of fashion, with three defenders standing off him he took aim from 30 yards, blasting it like a rocket through the sea of legs, past Kurto's dive and into the top corner for his first ever A-League goal and giving his team the lead with 12 minutes of regulation to play. Sawyer had been everywhere for the Bulls and Saif-Eddine gave him yet another chance to score his first A-League goal, but once again he fluffed his lines and blazed it over the bar. Mo Al-Taay came in on the stroke of 90 minutes for Oscar Priestman who had done a mountain of work alongside Brillante in the midfield.
The VAR check and time wasting from Kurto ended up benefiting Macarthur, as the linesman held up an absurd 8 minutes of stoppage time. 2 minutes into it Kealy Adamson had a golden chance to score a leveller after some penalty area pinball, and like much of the chances so far he put it wide. Hammond should have buried the game seconds later when he had a one on one with Kurto but elected for an early strike that he also put wide. With the 8 minutes of indicated stoppage time expired Alen Stajcic threw on Abdul-Raham for his Wanderers debut. Macarthur threw men forward in a final attack, they produced a cross but the man who met it had to run backward to head it and it had no power or direction. Abdul-Raham didn't touch the ball but his last second contribution was flattening former Wanderer Matt Jurman as the full time whistle sounded, giving the Wanderers a vital 2-1 win and sparking a post-match melee that eventually faded away.
It was a fighting win, showing much needed spirit and steel to hold off Macarthur who continued to push regardless of the scoreline. There was hardly a poor player in the second half and the subs all made their contribution. The three points put the Wanderers and Macarthur on 25 points each level with Sydney FC in 6th place, with the Wanderers slightly inferior goal difference leaving them in 8th but well in the top 6 fight as the season approaches it's climax.
The Wanderers next match is against the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford on Saturday 22nd of February with kick-off at 5:00PM.
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