The Western Sydney Wanderers have returned to the top of the PS4 NPL2 table after an impressive 5-0 win over St George.
Defeating St George, who had previously only lost one match, was the perfect way to bounce back after last week’s defeat against Bankstown City with goals from Liam Youlley, Brenton Fox, Lachlan Scott, Mario Shabow and Tariq Maia.
While the Red & Black dominated the first half in terms of possession and territory, there was no indication of the carnage that was to come in the second period.
Youlley, Maia and Fox all failed to convert first half chances but it was left back Jackson Bandiera who was looking the most dangerous when he overlapped on the flanks.
In fact it was Bandiera who played a big part in giving the Wanderers advantage in first half stoppage time as he earned a penalty after being brought down in the box.
Youlley converted from the spot to give the Wanderers a 1-0 lead at half time.
St George started the second half with extra invigoration with a few early attacks but when the Wanderers scored their second goal through Fox the match was all but over.
If St George thought the Red & Black would ease-up as the match went on, they were soon proven wrong as Mario Shabow and Lachlan Scott came off the bench.
Scott, already sitting on six goals for the season, did not take long to score his seventh as he got the final touch on Josh Macdonald’s goal-bound shot to make it 3-0.
Shabow then followed suit as he finished calmly following a terrific slide pass from Maia before the latter got on the scoresheet himself with a composed finish in stoppage time.
The 5-0 victory was nothing less than the Wanderers deserved and sent a clear message to the rest of the league that last week’s loss was not going to slow down the club’s promotion chase.
It was the club’s third clean sheet in five matches so far this season, having also scored 19 goals in the process.
Next up is sixth-placed Macarthur Rams at Lynwood Park this Saturday at 7pm.
Western Sydney Wanderers 5 (Liam Youlley 45+3’ Brenton Fox 54’ Lachlan Scott 68’ Mario Shabow 83’ Tariq Maia 90+1’)
St George 0
Western Sydney Wanderers: Matthew Symes (GK), Jackson Bandiera, Daniel Alessi, Shayne D’Cunha, Lachlan Roberts (Mario Shabow 56’), Keanu Baccus, Cameron Devlin, Liam Youlley (Josh Gaspari 75’), Tariq Maia, Joshua Macdonald, Brenton Fox Lachlan Scott 65’)
Unused subs: Nick Suman (GK), Mathieu Cordier
Other results
U20: WSW 4-0 St George (Ramy Najjarine x2 Matthew Lecce, Moudi Najjar)
U18: WSW 2-0 St George (Jamie Percevski, Richard Stewart)
U16: WSW 11-0 Macarthur Rams (Alex Lopez x4, Jaden Casella x2, Bailey Rule x2, Jarrod Carluccio, Jackson Mortimer, Adrian Viggiani)
U15: WSW 8-1 Macarthur Rams (Noah Botic x2, Adrian Neoklis x2, Adrian Viggiani x2, George Antonis, Jacob Casha)
U14: WSW 13-0 Macarthur Rams (Ali Auglah x3, Rocco Fragale x3, Yinka Sunmola x3, Diego Alonso x2, Harry Skotadis x2)
U13: WSW 7-0 Macarthur Rams (Gabriel Popovic x4, Israel Ekundayo x2, Daniel Milicic)
