Mark Bridge’s late header was enough for the Wanderers to record a fourth-straight A-League victory, edging the Phoenix 2-1 earlier this evening.
The attacking confidence among both teams was on show in a back-and-forth first-half. Western Sydney would find the initial breakthrough after a stinging counter-attack caught the visiting defence in a bunch and allowed Mark Bridge to setup Federico Piovaccari for a tap-in. Their advantage would not last long, however, with a brilliant solo strike that was rocketed into the bottom-corner from Manny Muscat leveling the scores before the half-hour mark.
While the excitement somewhat dimmed as a stalemate looked inevitable in the second-half, a lapse at the back from the Phoenix left Bridge unmarked to nod home a corner in the last 10 minutes.
The late winner stole much of the post-match spotlight, although decisions from referee Strebre Delovski drew the ire of both sets of suppoters and debate also surrounded the ruling-out of what would have been a stunning goal from Scott Jamieson for offside.
Here is the best of what Twitter had to say following the result:
https://twitter.com/LaurenceRosen/status/667976483873292288
BRIDGEYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
⚫️🔴⚫️🔴⚫️🔴⚫️🔴⚫️🔴#WSWvWEL— Kane Milne (@MilneyK9) November 21, 2015
.@wswanderersfc played fantastic in the opening 10/15 min. Transition sharp and fast. Need to keep that up for longer periods. #WSWvWEL
— Alan Mtashar (@AlanMtashar) November 21, 2015
First 15-20 MIN the best we have played for a LONG time. That style of football at that speed very tough to defend against. #WSWvWEL
— Ross Catanzariti (@bosco08) November 21, 2015
Still don't know why our second goal was disallowed #WSWvWEL
— Matt_WSW23 (@Matt_WSW23) November 21, 2015
Always something missing from Merrick's Phoenix! #WSWvWEL
— Anthony Pavlidis (@Pavlidis97) November 21, 2015
Love hearing the Ernies Yellow Army in full voice 🙂 #WSWvWEL #COYN
— Steven Gardner (@deepwebdesign) November 21, 2015
Ernie's hoofball time wasting anti football unjustly rewarded by incompetent refs. #ALeagueRefs #WSW #WSWvWEL
— West Sydney Football (@WestSydney) November 21, 2015
The quality of the linesman and referees in this game is shocking #WSWvWEL
— ME (@twittingforu) November 21, 2015
https://twitter.com/ahaak/status/667961736041922560
Strebre Delovski is an embarrassment to referees I swear! #WSWvWEL
— Taylor Hall-Jones (@THJ93) November 21, 2015
#WSWvWEL Ref was shocking tonight cmon @FFA get your metrics sorted #SaveTheNix
— Charlie Campbell (@charliecPIM) November 21, 2015
Still not convinced about Pio but the season is still young for him and @wswanderersfc #WSWvWEL
— David Lee (@LeeKingKovic) November 21, 2015
Running out of patience with Sarpong. Needs to start performing. #WSWvWEL
— Sam Hindmarsh (@hndmrsh) November 21, 2015
Fuck this referee! Stop sending him for games at Pirtek. He's totally useless #WSWvWEL
— bas_sports (@bas_sports) November 21, 2015
Wow Strebre is truly awful tonight #WSWvWEL
— Dagan (@ardrigh) November 21, 2015
Hope Siggy is ok #WSWvWEL
— TdotM (@Champsaaan) November 21, 2015
It's always a bit scary when you see a footballer go down, but not in a good way. Hope Sigmund is ok. #WSWvWEL
— William Caldwell (@Will_Caldwell10) November 21, 2015
Only one side being reffed here… #WSWvWEL
— David Cross (@The_Nighthawks) November 21, 2015
Worst ref in the league #aleague #WSWvWEL
— Liam Dolphin (@LiamDolphin) November 21, 2015
YES FATHEAD #WSWvWEL
— Daniel Carr (@danieljcarrr) November 21, 2015
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
