A huge seven days for our Wander Women begins with an away trip to face bottom of the table Canberra United on Saturday afternoon.
The Wanderers come into the match off the back of a tough defeat in the Sydney Derby on Saturday; the Wander Women fought extremely hard, but the concession of a marginal penalty before a contentious red card to defender Vicky Bruce swung the momentum against them, and they eventually fell to a 2-0 loss.
A dose of good news was received by the Wanderers to begin the week, with the APL deciding to rescind Bruce’s red card, meaning she is free to play in this weekend’s crucial match against Canberra.
Bruce put in an impressive performance before her unfortunate red card against our crosstown rivals, putting in many key tackles, as did captain Amy Harrison, whilst returning goalkeeper Sham Khamis also made a couple of key saves to deny the visitors.
Unfortunately these efforts counted for nothing as the Wanderers fell to a second straight defeat, and now sit outside the top six.
They do have a game in hand on most of the teams above them, and also have the unique occurrence of playing against the same opponent twice in the space of four days.
Canberra have struggled this season, winning only three times and conceding 37 goals in just 15 games.
They only won one of their first nine matches, which has left them playing catch up for much of the season.
They do have two games in hand – one which will be played against the Wanderers next Wednesday and the other against our crosstown rivals – which if they secure victory in one or both would see them go off the bottom of the table, but their chances of qualifying for the finals seem remote.
Their results don’t take away from the achievements of some of their players, with Michelle Heyman enjoying a wonderful season up front, being the competitions top scorer with 13 goals and earning a recall to the Matildas side thanks to her brilliant form.
Classy midfielder Vesna Milivojevic – a former Wanderer – has also been impressive with nine goals and three assists; she also scored against the Wanderers last season.
Heyman was on the scoresheet in Canberra’s last match against Western United, though it wasn’t enough to secure points for her side, as three goals in the opening 14 minutes from United helped them to a 4-2 win.
Canberra’s performances have been improving of late, and the likes of Harrison, Bruce and Maddy McComasky will have to be at their best at the back to deny Canberra’s in-form attack, especially with the Wanderers needing the points to climb back into the top six.
They will also look to find their goalscoring rhythm again, with the attack firing blanks in their last two matches.
It hasn’t been for a lack of effort, with key forwards Sophie Harding and Holly Caspers trying to add to their impressive tallies this season, but coach Robbie Hooker knows his side has to find a clinical cutting edge if they are to jump and stay in the finals places.
The Wanderers were unable to defeat Canberra last season, suffering a tough 3-0 loss away, before being held to a 1-1 draw at home.
Their last win over Canberra did come away from home back in 2019, where the Wanderers were dominant in a 4-0 victory, how they would love for a repeat of that result on Saturday.
