Harry Novillo’s brace handed Western Sydney their first defeat since October in a 3-2 victory over the Wanderers at AAMI Park tonight.
The Frenchman opened the scoring with a superb free kick catching Andrew Redmayne off guard at his near post before Bruno Fornaroli doubled the lead after 25 minutes. However, two City howlers from Thomas Sorenson and an own goal by Aaron Hughes saw Tony Popovic’s men equalise after an hour.
Then Novillo stepped up to the plate again scoring a sublime goal to give City a crucial win to enhance their title credentials.
Scintillating City
Thomas Sorenson collects the ball from a Wanderers set piece before quickly disposing the ball the most dangerous man in the A-League Aaron Mooy. The former Wanderer runs with the ball for a few yards before unleashing the most lethal man in the league, Bruno Fornaroli. The Uruguayan has been a big hit with 12 goals in 13 games so it was no surprise he ran at Jacob Pepper with intent before curling the ball past Andrew Redmayne into the far right corner to give City a 2-0 lead. It was efficient counter-attacking at its best.
Wanderers unbeaten run ends
October 24 was the last day the Wanderers tasted defeat in the A-League. A late goal from Milos Ninkovic gave Sydney FC a 1-0 derby win. For the next 10 games the former Asian Champions were literally unbeatable. Starting from the bottom and reaching the top with 26 points in the 30 available to them. However, conceding twice in the first 24 minutes, it was always going to be hard for them to come back and head into next week’s derby with points. Credit where credit is due, they scratched and crawled their way back into the match, equalising at 2-2 and created many chances to win the game…
More refereeing controversy
… and arguably they should have. Jarred Gillett created a moment that could have escalated quickly if it was not a regular season match. Playing the ball quickly from a free kick, Mark Bridge slotted the ball past Sorenson to seemingly give them a 3-2 lead. Instead Gillett apparently did not blow his whistle to restart the play which led to significant confusion on the pitch and enraged Wanderers players, officials and fans.
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