Wanderers held to 1-1 stalemate

The Western Sydney Wanderers put out what was considered to be one of their strongest line-ups yet this season, yet it did not give them the ability to score more than one goal to secure the win, rather playing out a 1-1 draw with Newcastle Jets.

The Wanderers began the game with an explosive start with this season’s signing Nikita Rukavytsya sprinting down the wing until he was called offside.

Wanderer Vitor Saba similarly entered the field with a fiery passion, trying to bounce the ball into the goal but it simply just bounced onto the top of the net.

Newcastle’s Edson Montano sprinted past the Wanderers defence, particularly Shannon Cole, who in a last minute attempt stretched his leg to stop the ball but almost ended us in the splitz. Thankfully for him, Montano sent the ball straight on top of the net.

A spectacular corner by Saba sends the ball straight to Tomi Juric who volleyed the ball straight into the back of the net. This led to the Wanderers taking the lead 1 – 0 in the 12th minute.

Romeo Castelen then passed the ball to Rukavysta who was then unable to attribute to the goals scored whilst moments later there were calls for handball by the Newcastle with the crowd erupting with profanities.

The Wanderers lead was ended in the 27th minute, with David Carney passing the ball to Marcos Flores who send the ball with his right foot into the centre of the box straight past Wanderers keeper Ante Covic.

Following this Rukavystya goes for a fantastic run and pushes past the defence and sends the ball straight to the keeper, this was followed by Shannon Cole taking a free kick for the Wanderers except he over curved the ball.

Jeronimo followed a similar attacking path by curving the ball towards the goal, but this was sent straight into the arms of Ante Covic.

The second half saw the first change of the game with Hamill coming on and Alessi coming off.

Rukavytsya started the second half off in a similar manner going for a brilliant run but passing the ball into enemy territory.

Castelen similarly went for a run but sent the ball high and wide away from goal which consequentially saw him coming off and being replaced by Bridge.

The Wanderers almost took the lead by an assist from Juric to Rukavysta who shot the ball straight over the top post. This followed with Newcastle taking off Jeronimo and bringing on Hoole.

David Carney was gradually becoming a threat to the Wanderers sending a perfect cross to the middle of the play, but the rest of his team mates were unable to interput the shot.

Juric then made another spectacular run only to try to pass the ball to Rukavystya who was a few steps behind with another opportunity squanderered for the Wanderers.

Substitutions continued with Celeski coming off and Pepper coming on, Rukavystsya being replaced by Haliti coming on.

A yellow card was given to Madaschi, which followed with the final with the shot in the game with Haliti almost securing a win for the Wanderers with a shot that was sadly deflected for the Red & Black away from goal.

The score settled at 1-1 with the Wanderers' next challenge being the Sydney Derby next Saturday evening.


Western Sydney Wanderers starting XI: Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, Shannon COLE, Mateo POLJAK, Tomi JURIC, Vitor SABA, Nikita RUKAVYTYSA, Matthew SPIRANOVIC, Romeo CASTELEN, Iacopo LA ROCCA, Daniel ALESSI and Ante COVIC (GK).

Western Sydney Wanderers substitutes: Brendan HAMILL, Labinot HALITI, Mark BRIDGE, Kearyn BACCUS and Dean BOUZANIS (GK).


Newcastle Jets starting XI: Kew Raffique JALIENS (C), Adrian MADASCHI, JERONIMO, Marcos FLORES, Edson MONTAO, Billy CELESKI, Allan WELSH, Samuel GALLAWAY, David CARNEY, Nicholas COWBURN and Ben Kennedy (GK).

Newcastle Jets substitutes: Zenon CARAVELLA, Joel GRIFFITHS, Andrew HOOLE, Jacob PEPPER and Mark BIRIGHITTI (GK).