Brendon Santalab reveals secret meeting with Tony Popovic inspired match-winning derby goal

BRENDON Santalab revealed a private meeting with coach Tony Popovic during the week was the motivation behind his match-winning goal for Western Sydney.

Brendon Santalab leads the team song after the Wanderers derby win. Picture: Mark Evans

BRENDON Santalab revealed a private meeting with coach Tony Popovic during the week was the motivation behind his matchwinning goal for the Western Sydney Wanderers.

Santalab scored the only goal in Saturday night’s shock 1-0 win over Sydney FC at ANZ Stadium, ending the Sky Blues’ 19-match unbeaten run.

The Wanderers striker returned to the starting line-up for the game after being left on the bench the previous week, when Western Sydney were beaten by the Central Coast Mariners. Santalab was overcome with emotion at the final whistle and says a chat with Popovic helped put him in the right frame of mind.

Santalab leads the team song in front of the RBB. Picture: Mark Evans

“It was interesting because during the week I had a private meeting with the coach and he helped me a lot to prepare for this game,” Santalab said. “I’m very thankful for his words during the week — it was all about composure. After last week it wasn’t easy to take against the Mariners and I probably could have won the game for us if I was in a better frame of mind. I think I was in a better frame of mind this week and it showed. I was calm and that’s what we need from our senior players in times of need.

“To bounce back like this after the words from my coach is a great achievement.”

Pressure was building on the Wanderers, who are just hanging onto a top six spot, and Santalab says the result will give them strength for the remaining games.

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“We need every point we can get at this stage of the season,” he said.

“There was a lot of pressure form all angles. As a group you have to stay tight knit, that’s the key and we certainly did that. We came in a huddle in the change-room, a huddle on the pitch before the game, our captain Mitch (Nichols) said a few words as well. It was huge in many ways.

“We competed with them, we put our bodies on the line, because they had chances and we threw our bodies in the way and were able to stop them. It’s a huge achievement for us as a group in a high pressure game.

“It could have really killed us or made us stronger and I think this will make us stronger.”

But Santalab’s game wasn’t completely without controversy. The veteran took out Sydney playmaker Milos Ninkovic with a nasty challenge and was lucky to escape sanction.

“Not good,” Santalab said, describing his tackle. “It was probably fatigue more than anything and desperate to stop the play and help the team recover a little bit. Not nice and I hope he’s okay. I rolled my ankle as well in that challenge, so it wasn’t great I don’t encourage that.”