Melbourne Victory suffered a 2-0 loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League on Wednesday.
Summary
Graham Dorrans’ penalty and Kwame Yeboah’s goal settled the contest at Bankwest Stadium.
It saw Victory fall to a second straight defeat after being beaten by Brisbane Roar last time out.
Victory made a decent start and Jacob Butterfield forced a good low stop from Wanderers goalkeeper Daniel Margush in the fifth minute.
Daniel Georgievski and Tate Russell put efforts wide for the Wanderers, while Marco Rojas – playing his 100th game for Victory – was substituted following a high challenge by Dorrans.
Mark Natta headed a chance wide for the host before Victory went close again five minutes before half-time.
Birkan Kirdar forced Margush to tip over his long-range effort after a neat passing move, but the teams went into the break level.
Victory was on top to begin the second half and Storm Roux headed a Jake Brimmer set-piece from the right wide as the visitor continued to push.
But the Wanderers opened the scoring with 18 minutes remaining, Dorrans converting from the penalty spot after a high challenge by Rudy Gestede on Bernie Ibini.
Yeboah squandered a good chance for Western Sydney in the 85th minute before Ben Folami tested Margush down low after a pass from Gestede.
But the Wanderers sealed their win through Yeboah, who beat Max Crocombe after a pass from Ibini, before Adama Traore saw a deflected cross hit the crossbar in additional time.
Player in focus
What they said – Nick Ansell
on comparison to Brisbane game…
“I think tonight we worked really hard, the first half was really good, we kept it 0-0 and we were pushing and then the second half we copped that penalty and it was unfortunate, but I think tonight was much, much better and we can definitely grow on this performance heading forward.”
on the mood in the squad during the game…
“I think the determination was definitely there tonight. We have a fantastic squad of players, we don’t have the full team in at the moment and everyone’s working very hard and we just have to stay positive and we’ll get ourselves out of this situation.”
Result
Hyundai A-League 2020/21
Western Sydney Wanderers 2 (Graham Dorrans 72′ pen, Kwame Yeboah 88′)
Melbourne Victory 0
Western Sydney Wanderers: Margush (gk); Russell, Gordon, Ziegler, Natta, Georgievski (Wilmering 56′); Baccus, Dorrans; Kamau (Ibini 45′), Troisi (O’Doherty 45′), Cox (Yeboah 66′).
Melbourne Victory: Crocombe (gk); Roux, Shotton, Ansell, Traore; Broxham (c) (Barnett 79′); Rojas (Lauton 24′), Brimmer, Butterfield, Kirdar (Folami 79′); Kruse (Gestede 61′).
Yellow cards: Dorrans 22′, Gestede 68′, Kirdar 77′
Red cards: Nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: Bankwest Stadium
Next up
Victory is back at AAMI Park on Wednesday, February 17, when it hosts Wellington Phoenix.
