Western Sydney Wanderers end frustration with win over Newcastle

Western Sydney put six weeks of frustration behind them to re-emerge as finals contenders with a 2-0 win over Newcastle.

The Wanderers’ Lachlan Scott fires off his goal-bound shot late in the first half yesterday. Picture: Mark Evans

Western Sydney have put six weeks of frustration behind them to re-emerge as serious finals contenders with a 2-0 win over Newcastle at Campbelltown Stadium yesterday.

In danger of losing ground in the race for the playoffs if they lost, the Wanderers showed there was still plenty of life in them with a solid display against a side who started the game above them on the competition table.

Goals in either half from Lachlan Scott (44th minute) and Jau­shua Sotirio (68th) saw the home side record their first win in seven games and just their fifth of the season. Importantly, it lifted Tony ­Popovic’s men to 18 points, equal with sixth-placed Wellington but seventh on goal difference.

Popovic, a relieved man after the Wanderers managed their first home win of the season, believes his side now has a springboard to go on a decent run.

“We certainly hope so but we will not look too far ahead,” Pop­ovic said. “We are never despondent with the results when we know we’re playing well.

“We won’t be doing cartwheels tonight just becaue we won a football match but there is strong belief in this club.”

Jets coach Mark Jones bemoaned his side’s inability to properly use the large amount of possession they had.

“We had 55 per cent possession and that is terrific away from home but we just didn’t use the ball enough,” Jones said. “Their goal just before halftime hurt a lot because I thought we controlled the first half and were well and truly in the game. We got into good areas but didn’t execute well enough. We needed a bit of silk, someone had to do a little bit more. Very disappointed to come in 1-0 down.”

Western Sydney were again wasteful in the final third. But defensively they were outstanding and goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic was not required to make a save throughout the entire 90 minutes.

For 19-year-old Scott, the game could well be a turning point in his career. He has always shown promise but just hasn’t got it right in front of goal. But yesterday’s goal — his first in the A-League — will be a huge confidence booster.

His effort justified Popovic's ­decision to start with him ahead of the club's leading goalscorer this season, Brendon Santalab, who was on the bench after missing the past three games through ­suspension.

Popovic was full of praise for Scott. “That was a fantastic finish. It was a great ball from Kearyn Baccus and he was in the right place in between the two central defenders. He did what he has been doing at training and put it away,” Popovic said.

Newcastle now drop back to eighth spot on 17 points with the Wanderers leapfrogging them.

This wasn't a great match by any means with little to entertain the crowd. It became very scrappy at stages.

The Wanderers broke the deadlock just before halftime when Scott pounced on a lovely through ball from Kearyn Baccus before burying his right-foot shot in the top right-hand corner of the net from about 15m.

It was probably a just reward for the home side as they had dominated large chunks of the first half only to be let down by their habitual problems in front of goal.

With the lively Nico Martinez looking dangerous every time he was on the ball, Western Sydney had the visitors back-pedalling, ­especially in the opening 20 minutes. They had no trouble getting into Newcastle’s last third of the field but found it difficult to create too many meaningful chances.

Credit, however, to the Newcastle defence. They were well-­organised and put their bodies on the line. The Jets’ tactics were to sit back and hit the Wanderers on the break with a reliance on the dangerous Andrew Nabbout.

But the Wanderers had done their homework and the speedster was kept in check for most of the first 45 minutes.

The Jets were not without their chances, though.

They looked threatening down the Wanderers’ left side and could have scored on 34 minutes when Aleksandr Kokko showed some nice touches before laying off for Jason Hoffman to fire off a left-foot volley that went just wide.

The lively Devante Clut then had Newcastle's best chance in the 41st minute but fired a left-foot shot just wide.