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26May21
Wellington Keep Play-Off Hopes Alive In Tense Duel
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix kept alive their A-League play-off hopes - and all but ended those of Western Sydney Wanderers - at Bankwest Stadium on May 26, by downing the locals 2-1 in a tensely fought tussle witnessed by 5,068 fans.
Wanderers dominated the early exchanges, but failed to threaten Oliver Sail's goal during the opening ten minutes of play, at which point Ziggy Gordon's late challenge on Reno Piscopo - for which the offender should have been booked at the very least by poorly performed referee Kurt Ams - left the Wellington player nursing a shoulder injury which forced his withdrawal from the fray minutes later.
In the immediate aftermath of Piscopo's enforced departure, Wellington dominated proceedings, so much so that Wests completed just one pass between the fifteenth and twentieth minutes!
Throughout the rest of that time, the visitors had the ball, but while they failed to test Daniel Margush during this period, Wellington soon exposed Wests' Achilles heel, and duly opened the scoring from a 24th minute corner.
Clayton Lewis' delivery to the near post found Tim Payne rising to meet the ball, but Graham Dorrans got to it first, only to direct it against his own crossbar. David Ball was the first to react to the rebound, and rammed it home from close range to the chagrin of the natives, whose defensive work at set pieces this season can most kindly be described as naive.
Their disappointment became delight five minutes later, Wests equalising from a corner which was wrongly awarded by referee Ams - he had the proverbial shocker, not to put too fine a point on it!
Tate Russell's delivery picked out Mark Natta, whose shot was blocked, as was that fired by Steven Ugarkovic from the rebound. This time, the ball rebounded to Keanu Baccus, who battered the ball home through the gathered throngs, one of whom, Dylan McGowan, was not only standing in an offside position, but in such a way that he impeded Sail's view of the shot.
Given his scarcely credible efforts so far in this game, it was no surprise to see referee Ams award the goal. What beggared belief was that the Video Assistant Referee was in full agreement, deeming that McGowan wasn't interfering with play!
You can just imagine Bill Shankly snarling in response, "If he wasn't interfering with play, what was he doing on the pitch?!"
Sail was still in a state of angst about the equaliser when he attempted a pass to Payne in the 31st minute. Unfortunately for the 'keeper, Mitch Duke anticipated it and gave Wellington a heart in mouth moment which swiftly passed as the ball ricocheted off the striker and past the upright.
Buoyed by that let-off, the visitors rediscovered their mojo in the minutes which followed, and after Lewis unleashed a twenty-two yard free-kick which beat Margush all ends up, only to career narrowly past his left-hand upright, Wellington took the lead once more, again from a corner.
Lewis' delivery again went to the near post, and was this time met by Tomer Hemed, whose thumping close range header bulleted into the net to give Wellington the half-time lead.
The first six minutes of the second half were quite incredible - it was thrill-a-minute fare, with chances galore materialising. Straight from the kick-off, Jaushua Sotirio, Piscopo's replacement, pinned his ears back and set sail for goal, with Margush forced to turn his low drive round the post.
Lewis' corner picked out Payne, whose header was
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deflected over the bar. Lewis' next delivery was cleared to Cameron Devlin, whose fierce drive was tipped over the bar by Margush as Wellington sought an early third goal.
Wests cleared the next corner, and an under-hit back-pass gave Duke a sniff of a second equaliser in the 49th minute. Sail dashed off his line to clear off the toes of the striker, then blocked superbly at close quarters to deny Bruce Kamau, after Dorrans' cross had been supplemented by Baccus' delightful flicked pass.
The resulting corner saw Dorrans' delivery pick out Natta, only for Hemed to clear his attempt off the line. Wests kept on coming, however, and in the 51st minute, Thomas Aquilina played Russell in on the right, from where he crossed to the near post. Baccus, arriving on cue, directed a flicked header across the face of goal, and just too far in front of Dorrans as he bid to keep the ball in play.
Ten minutes after half-time, Sail pulled off another point-blank save to deny Kamau from six yards after he'd been played in by Aquilina, thus ending this remarkable opening spell - it's safe to say both teams were keen to take stock, given all their efforts had seen no change to the scoreline.
Had referee Ams done his job properly earlier in the match, Gordon would have been given his marching orders in the 63rd minute for a studs-up challenge on Sotirio. A yellow card was the least he deserved, and the officially at last obliged, ironically his final booking of the match - the others had been for far lesser offences than the two Wests' fullback had committed.
Halfway through the second spell, Devlin gifted possession to Duke, who set sail downfield before playing in substitute Bernie Ibini-Isei. He shot early and instinctively, but inaccurately, the ball soaring over the bar.
The home team's pursuit of parity continued unabated. Ugarkovic wasn't far away with a seventieth minute free-kick, while two minutes later, Aquilina and Russell combined to allow Ugarkovic to chance his arm from open play.
His shot through a crowded goalmouth was spilled by Sail, but substitute Scott McDonald squandered the chance to score with his first touch. Seconds later, he skied a shot from seven yards after Sail had fumbled a drive from another substitute, Jordan Mutch.
Try as they might, Wests simply couldn't get the better of Wellington's rearguard action, in which Steven Taylor was imperious and Payne indefatigable. The latter's performance was summed up in stoppage time, when with a despairing lunge, he somehow blocked Russell's piledriver from the edge of the penalty area, a denial which saw the defender react in delighted fashion.
And with good reason, for it guaranteed Wellington all three points from this genuine six-pointer between two teams who were effectively at the last chance saloon where their play-off hopes were concerned. Those of Wests were dashed, Wellington's 2-1 win allowing them to close to within two points of a play-off spot - their destiny is in their hands.
West. Syd.: Margush; Gordon (booked, 63) (Mutch, 71), McGowan, Natta; Russell, Ugarkovic (McDonald, 71), Baccus (Muller, 80), Dorrans (booked, 50), Aquilina; Kamau (Ibini-Isei, 62), Duke
Wellington: Sail; Fenton (booked, 33), Taylor, Payne, Sutton (booked, 36); Ball (booked, 44), Devlin, Lewis, Piscopo (Sotirio, 15); Waine (Rufer, 79), Hemed (McGarry, 88)
Referee: Kurt Ams
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