They may have ended up with a rare victory when they beat Newcastle 2-0 but it was a far from convincing performance from Western Sydney at Campbelltown Sports Stadium this evening.
Goals by Lachlan Scott and Jaushua Sotirio ensured three premiership points but did not in any way confirm the title credentials of the Wanderers in 2016-17.
Their attack was again disjointed and broke down more often than not – a far cry from the seamless, dangerous push forward by the Wanderers in their first two years in the A-League.
Maybe it has something to do with the high turnover of personnel that has taken place at the Wanderers since last season.
And there’s no doubt even a great coach like Tony Popovic would be tested by a squad of new faces on a regular basis.
This afternoon’s game, which kicked off at 5pm on a warm summer’s evening, was against a team struggling in the competition.
But Newcastle were never that far away from getting at least a draw against the Wanderers.
The first 40 minutes saw play switch from end to end but without real scoring chances being created.
Lachlan Scott’s goal in the 43rd minute came from a well place shot inside the penalty area and the visitors never really recovered from that point onwards.
Sotirio’s strike in the 67th minute to make it 2-0 was eerily similar to Scott’s and to be fair to Newcastle there was a bit of good fortune involved in both instances.
It’s also fair to say Newcastle did not show enough urgency after falling 2-0 behind, with too many passes going all the way back to the defenders in the last 10 minutes.
As for the Wanderers, they would have pleased that nearly 10,000 attended their annual sojourn to Campbelltown.
And of course they would have been especially grateful for the three premiership points.
With the Asian Champions League not too far away, they just would not have been happy with the way they played.
