A nine-man Wanderers squad has gone down to Manly United in a disappointing 4-0 defeat to to Blacktown City at Wanderers Football Park.
The Western Sydney Wanderers NPL 1 side returned to Wanderers Football Park last week, facing a tough challenge against high-flying Blacktown City, ultimately suffering a four-goal defeat after being reduced to nine men.
The match was evenly poised for much of the opening 20 minutes, with Alaat Abdul-Rahman breaking through the defence and bearing down on goal, only to be denied by a fingertip save from goalkeeper Cayden Henderson that deflected the shot onto the crossbar.
Blacktown’s Mitchell Malia began to grow into the game soon after with the opposition coming knocking. The striker provided passes for multiple opportunities in a five-minute period that were saved by Tristan Vidakovic.
In the 26th minute, Nicholas O’Brien picked out Travis Major from a corner, and he tapped in from point-blank range to open the scoring for Blacktown.
Seven minutes later, Danny Choi connected to a bouncing ball from distance as he rocketed it into the net, catching out Vidakovic who had anticipated the run through.
Blacktown City went into the break with a two-goal advantage, capping off a strong first half in which they weathered early Wanderers pressure before taking control.
The first red card of the match came in the 52nd minute, when Ricky Fransen was adjudged to have brought down Jack O’Brien in what was deemed a denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity—despite claims of a heavy challenge from the Blacktown striker as Fransen attempted to control the ball.
Kaan Nizam was shown a red card for a high challenge on Ben Berrie, reducing the Wanderers to nine men with more than 30 minutes still to play.
Blacktown quickly took advantage, as just two minutes later, Nicholas O’Brien capitalised on a misplaced pass and calmly slotted the ball into the bottom right corner.
With just over ten minutes remaining, Richard Nkomo brought down Martin Fernandez in the box, and Fernandez confidently converted the resulting penalty to seal Blacktown’s fourth goal of the match.
The Wanderers will now turn their attention to St George FC on Friday night.
