A-League: Western Sydney Wanderers coach Carl Robinson misses Melbourne City draw due to Covid scare

The Wanderers played out an entertaining draw with Melbourne City on Sunday, but their coach wasn’t in attendance.

Sunday’s match was one of only two A-League Men’s games to go ahead this weekend. Picture: Daniel Pockett / Getty Images

Western Sydney Wanderers boss Carl Robinson is the latest coach to be caught up in the A-Leagues’ Covid chaos, forced to watch his side’s 3-3 draw with Melbourne City from the confines of a hotel room.

Robinson, who felt ill prior to the game, returned a negative rapid antigen test before kick-off but was unable to attend the game as a precaution due to other cases evolving at the club.

Assistant coaches Labinot Haliti and Gary Van Egmond took the reins for the evening and oversaw arguably the Wanderers’ best performance of the season, which despite Robinson missing, helped alleviate the pressure on the under-fire coach.

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“He just wasn‘t feeling well,” Haliti said post-game.

“He’s had a normal week and just this morning he wasn’t feeling well and it happened to be like this. He’s prepared the team well and the boys did well.”

Robinson’s job appears under threat after the Wanderers’ slow start to the season. Picture: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images

The Wanderers’ control of the game ebbed and flowed throughout much of the night as they took an early two-goal lead before falling behind, as City battled back into the contest.

However, despite going behind early in the second-half, Western Sydney found a way back into the contest and was arguably the better side in the moments prior to and after Keijiro Ogawa’s equaliser.

“It was a good game for the neutral,” Haliti said.

“The first 25 minutes, we were on top of them and then they came back into the game as you would expect. They are a good side, they are the champions.

“We reset in the second half and we had a great second half, too.

“People don’t realise it, but we are a big club so (the fast start) is no surprise … we showed tonight what we can do.”

The Wanderers and last year’s champions played out an entertaining draw. Picture: Daniel Pockett / Getty Images

Meanwhile, Melbourne City boss Patrick Kisnorbo lauded his side’s character to get back into the contest, but believes his side needs to be better over the full 90 minutes.

“We started slow … in the first ten minutes,” Kisnorbo said.

“We showed great character coming back and obviously in the second half we managed to get the lead, but then I think we stopped pressuring the ball.

“In the end they beat you with one ball through and it’s a goal. I think we can do better over the 90 minutes.

City, also no stranger to a Covid crisis, played its first league game since December 18 after having its last two league games rubbed off due a number of cases at the club.

When questioned about whether the Covid situation affected the players’ fatigue, Kisnorbo said it may have been one of the factors, while also alluding to the fact they played only four days prior in the FFA Cup against Wellington.

“I think it‘s one of them, but we again don’t know how this virus attacks the respiratory system,” Kisnorbo said.

“Sometimes it’s the unknown and obviously we played 120 minutes the other day, so it’s something we need to manage day by day,

“Some days the players are feeling great and obviously by the end, the players were really fatigued, so we have to manage that situation well.”