A fired-up Western Sydney Wanderers have won a spiteful match 2-0 over the Central Coast Mariners to move up to second on the A-League Men ladder.
January’s meeting between the two sides was full of fire and controversy, and Saturday’s encounter took it up a notch with both teams having players sent off in the second half at CommBank Stadium.
Brandon Borrello grabbed his fourth goal in three games to open the Wanderers’ account in the 26th minute before their captain Marcelo was dismissed shortly after halftime for a two-footed tackle.
Despite the fact they were down to 10 men, Frenchman Romain Amalfitano put the Wanderers two up on the hour mark.
Any hopes of a Mariners comeback were quelled when Beni N’Kololo was shown a straight red for elbowing Tomislav Mrcela two minutes later.
Central Coast went into the game without defender Brian Kaltak, striker Moresche and head coach Nick Montgomery following dismissals in their last outing.
Montgomery was forced to watch from the stands as his assistants Matt Simon and Sergio Raimundo deployed a second-choice centre-back pairing of Dan Hall and Jacob Farrell.
The Wanderers were keen to exploit any weaknesses at the back and after plenty of huffing they eventually blew the Mariners’ house down when winger Amor Layouni burst down the right flank.
The Tunisia international was able to put a cross beyond Hall and Farrell and straight into the path of Borrello, who finished past Danny Vukovic.
The Mariners kept the Wanderers out until halftime and were offered a route back into the game when Marcelo carelessly lost control and lunged in two-footed on Storm Roux.
An all-in melee including Vukovic, who needlessly ran from the other end of the field to get involved, ensued.
Referee Chris Beath showed Marcelo a straight red, standing by his decision following a VAR check.
Vukovic was booked for his involvement and for a brief period his side looked ready to stage a comeback before the Wanderers broke and streamed up field through Layouni again.
Calem Nieuwenhof surged into the box and the midfielder was able to tee the ball up for Amalfitano to put the Wanderers 2-0 ahead.
N’Kololo’s moment of madness killed off any hope the Mariners might have had of getting back into the contest.
The Wanderers were happy to defend their lead until the end as they claimed their first win in six meetings against the Central Coast.
