An 86th minute Aaron Calver equaliser extended the Western Sydney Wanderers’ winless run to seven matches after a fiery 1-1 stalemate with Western United at Bankwest Stadium.
Markus Babbel’s men thought they had done enough to earn a priceless three points after Patrick Ziegler nodded home with ten minutes remaining, but Western United and Aaron Calver had other ideas.
A rather tense opening stanza saw clear-cut chances far and few between.
The best of the half arrived for the visitors inside two minutes when the returning Daniel Lopar pulled out an impressive stop to deny Panagiotis Kone from close range.
The hosts then went close with headers from Alex Meier and Keanu Baccus but both failed to evade the grasp of United shotstopper Filip Kurto.
The Wanderers began to knock at the door on the hour mark when Alex Meier’s free kick was palmed wide by Kurto. Minutes later Keanu Baccus blasted a powerful curling effort over the crossbar.
They came within inches on 70 minutes after a superb touch and volley from Nicolas Muller sailed past the wrong side of the post.
The chances continued to stack up as Meier’s header was cleared off the line by Conor Pain 73 minutes in.
After 79 minutes their heavy pressure finally paid off.
Keanu Baccus rose highest at the front post to flick on a corner into the path of Ziegler who made no mistake nodding home into an empty net.
The towering German defender could not have chosen a better time to score his first goal in red and black.
The almighty roar that radiated from the Wanderers faithful reinforced the significance of Ziegler’s strike – however their celebrations were to be cut short in the 86th minute.
Some smart play out wide saw Connor Pain whip in a pinpoint cross for former Sydney FC defender Aaron Calver to head home and inflict a cruel blow upon his old enemy.
Five dramatic minutes of injury time saw both teams eventually have to settle for a share of the spoils.
The result offered minimal consolation for the Red and Black who snapped their five game winless run but still remain almost two months without a victory.
Western Sydney Wanderers 1 (Ziegler 79′)
Western United 1 (Calver 86′)
Bankwest Stadium
Attendance: 11,988
Referee: Alireza Faghani
Assistant Referee 1: Andrew Lindsay
Assistant Referee 2: Lance Greenshields
Fourth Official: Stephen Lucas
VAR: Kris Griffiths-Jones
Western Sydney Wanderers: Daniel LOPAR (GK), Daniel GEORGIEVSKI, Matthew JURMAN, Patrick ZIEGLER, Tate RUSSELL, Pirmin SCHWEGLER, Keanu BACCUS, Kwame YEBOAH, Nicolai MULLER, Mitchell DUKE (C), Alexander MEIER
Unused subs: Nicholas SUMAN (GK), Dylan MCGOWAN, Nicholas SULLIVAN ,Tass MOURDOUKOUTAS, Mohammed ADAM, Tarek ELRICH
Western United FC: Filip KURTO (GK), Connor PAIN, Ersan GULUM, Andrew DURANTE (Valentino Yuel 85′), Brendan HAMILL, Aaron CALVER, Jerry SKOTADIS, Dario JERTEC, Panagiotis KONE (Max BURGESS 40′), Alessandro DIAMANTI, Besart BERISHA (Dylan PIERIAS 73′)
Unused Subs: Ryan SCOTT (GK), Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, Apostolos STAMATELOPOULOS
Feature Image Credit: Steve Christo
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