Adelaide United staved off repeat comeback attempts from Western Sydney Wanderers to win 3-2 at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Adelaide United staved off repeat comeback attempts from Western Sydney Wanderers to win 3-2 at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The visitors twice raced out to a two-goal lead but second-half goals to Bruce Kamau and Mitch Duke kept the Wanderers in the contest until the final whistle blew, as the Wanderers’ seven-game unbeaten run came to an end.
Adelaide bookended the first half with goals to Craig Goodwin and Stefan Mauk to take a 2-0 lead into the break.
Goodwin scored just one minute into his A-League return before the Wanderers upped the ante. Reds ‘keeper James Delianov produced a magnificent goal-line save to keep Ziggy Gordon off the scoresheet before the hosts wasted a plethora of opportunities sparked by dangerous crosses from either flank.
Adelaide withstood the Red and Black barrage before going two goals up on the eve of half-time. Mauk snuck the ball past the near post of Daniel Margush after Ben Halloran’s sharp run through a sea of Wanderers defenders set up the chance for Mauk to double his side’s lead.
Louis D’Arrigo hit the post in the early knockings of the second half as Adelaide’s confidence grew, before the Wanderers set up a nervous finish when substitute Kamau emerged off the bench to put an invading Daniel Wilmering cross into the back of the net.
Kamau’s fellow Wanderers substitute Duke saw his two chances to equalise repelled by the Reds before Mohamed Toure blasted Adelaide 3-1 ahead. Toure was engulfed by teammates in celebration with the points all-but wrapped up, but a second Wanderers goal tucked away by Duke in the 90th-minute heaped the pressure back on the visitors.
Delianov was made to brush a vicious Duke strike off the post and away as the hosts gunned for an equaliser, but time ticked away from the Red and Black as the full-time whistle blew in Wanderland with Adelaide’s 3-2 lead intact.
