Wanderers ‘deserved to be booed’

Wanderers skipper Brendan Hamill has conceded that fans were right to boo his side and walk out on Tuesday night.

Brendan Hamill of the Wanderers fouls Bart Schenkeveld of Melbourne City during Tuesday night’s match. Picture: Getty Images

Dejected Western Sydney captain Brendan Hamill has apologised to Wanderers fans and admitted the team deserved their wrath after their first-half performance against Melbourne City on Tuesday night.

The Wanderers have been left reeling following a 2-0 loss that sees them struggling near the bottom of the table after 10 rounds.

Several members of the club’s active supporter group, the Red and Black Bloc, made a beeline towards the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms at half-time to rev up the players before the entire RBB staged a mass walkout 10 minutes into the second half after two men were ejected from the stadium and subsequently banned.

Jeers rang out at half-time and full-time as the faithful vented their feelings. The Wanderers have managed just two wins in 10 games, leaving coach Markus Babbel to contemplate how he can get the season back on track.

Hamill, born and raised in western Sydney, admitted the first half showing was not good enough as his side lacked intensity and energy while conceding two very poor goals. “We gave away two very shit goals,” Hamill, the last player to leave the ground on Tuesday night, said.

“They had a lot of the ball and tactically we weren’t there. They were playing between the lines pretty easily but we didn’t show any fight, grit, passion or hunger or want.

“We talked about that at half-time and we came out and I think we showed a reaction in the ­second half.

“We had chances when they went down to 10 but we didn’t take them.”

Hamill, who took over the captaincy this season, said he understood why the Wanderers fans reacted the way they did.

“I think we deserved that, the first-half booing. We knew that. We spoke about it going into halftime,” he said.

“We can only apologise.

“It’s a new year, a new canvas, but I suppose we haven’t started the right way.

“We have to turn up and fight for them, the people of western Sydney that pay their hard-earned money to support us.

“It’s match day, they live for that every week and we have to do better, we know that.

“But we can’t keep saying stuff after games, we have to find a way to act and turn it around.

“We have only won twice this season and that has to change.”

Asked how the Wanderers could turn things around, Hamill said they needed to win the early battles in a game and not worry about being “nice and pretty”.

“We talk and talk but we need to turn those words into action. Ultimately, we have to turn up and fight,” he added.

“We can’t just turn up and ­expect to play all nice and pretty. We have to battle and dominate the battle first before we play football and we didn’t do that in the first half.

“It is frustrating. This was an important game for us because a win puts us on the tails of the teams in the six but now we are six points out.

“I know there is still a lot of football to be played, but we can’t keep saying that week in and week out because the games are coming thick and fast and we need to get results, plain and simple.

“We need to turn it around and stick together and we have to do it ourselves. No one is going to do it for us … the fans, the families, friends, the coaching staff … we have to find a way to not get ­bullied and to want to win more.”