Two goals within the first ten minutes gave Western Sydney fans an early Christmas present, as Wanderers sealed a comfortable 4-1 victory over Wellington Phoenix at CommBank Stadium on Sunday evening.
A clean sheet eluded the home side for the seventh time this season but it was an important three points, lifting Wanderers into sixth on the A-League ladder.
With less than a minute on the clock, Zac Sapsford got Western Sydney off to the perfect start with a clinical finish, the 22-year-old masked forward netting for the third time this campaign.
Just nine minutes later things got even worse for Giancarlo Italiano’s side as Bozhidar Kraev struck against his old club, finishing off a sweeping WSW team move to double their advantage.
A failed attempt at playing out from the back from captain Lawrence Thomas allowed the visitors a route back into the game, with Hideki Ishige executing an acrobatic bicycle kick finish from close range after a scramble in the penalty area.
Not going into their shell, Wanderers continued to attack and restored their two-goal lead through substitute Marcus Antonsson who had only come onto the field minutes earlier.
Dylan Scicluna extended the advantage to three with a powerful strike from just outside the box late on with Wellington well and truly beaten.
Super sub Antonsson makes big impact
With the game in the balance at 2-1, Wanderers needed another goal to ease nerves around CommBank Stadium and it was provided by Marcus Antonsson.
Perhaps never quite hitting the output you would expect from a foreign striker, the Swede has a knack for scoring timely goals and is an important contributor to this WSW side.
“There was a period of the game there where we probably lost a little momentum,” Wanderers coach Alen Stajcic said post-game.
“Aydan Hammond and Marcus came on and really gave us a good boost when we needed it – both of them. They were both sort of instrumental in a lot of good attacks. Marcus scored one but I thought Marcus and Aydan both had the energy we needed with the ball and without the ball.
“In terms of (goals per minute) he’s probably the leading scorer in the league. The more he keeps doing that, we’ve actually got a small squad at the moment with the amount of injuries we’ve got so it was always going to be important that the people who came on added value.”
Slow starts sinking Wellington
After an unexpected premiership tilt and going within one goal of a first-ever A-League grand final appearance, the Nix have crashed back to earth in 2024-25, sitting ninth on the table after the first two months of the season.
Conceding first and failing to mount comebacks has been a problem for Wellington and that trend continued, with the Sapsford and Kraev strikes coming within the opening ten minutes, giving them a mighty mountain to climb away from home.
Ishige’s classy finish gave them some hope but Wellington only lasted another seven minutes without conceding again.
The losses of Oskar Zawada and Wanderers man Kraev over the off-season have certainly stung. They are averaging just 1.25 goals per game, the fourth-worst attacking return in the competition (Western United have scored 15 goals, at an average of 1.67, having played one extra game).
Things get somewhat easier for Italiano’s team after Christmas, as they return to Sky Stadium to face the struggling Newcastle Jets.
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