Western United gave coach John Aloisi a memorable 46th birthday by holding onto a 1-0 win against Western Sydney Wanderers to send themselves to the top of the A-League Men standings.
New Wanderers coach Mark Rudan has come unstuck against his former team.
Wanderers enjoyed quick success under Rudan, when the new coach took charge of the team with a 1-0 home midweek win against Perth Glory.
The shift in mindset and energy in Western Sydney’s mid-week game was taken into the match against United, as they had a spring in their step on Saturday afternoon until the goal.
Rudan’s new squad sits eighth on the ladder, after two wins this season and missing out on the chance to win back-to-back games.
Capitalising on a recurring theme in their campaign thus far, Western Sydney continued to build up momentum only to miss chances on goal.
The Wanderers were cursing multiple missed chances in front of goal, in a game they generally controlled, only to lose to Aloisi’s side by a single goal.
Aleksandar Prijanovic’s goal was one of just two opportunities the Victorians had against the Wanderers, who could not have been more gracious with their goal-scoring opportunities.
This aspect of their play has particularly caught Rudan’s attention and he said that those issues needed to be addressed after walking away scoreless and without a point.
“It was one way traffic really,” Rudan said.
“They had a quarter of the shots we had and one of them went in.”
“The opportunities they [Western United] had were through our mistakes.”
This came after an underwhelming 90 minutes that saw the likes of Jack Rodwell, Tomer Hemed, Keijiro Ogawa and Keanu Baccus continually strike off target.
“We need to hit target and that’s the difference,” said Rudan.
“I think they were very good on Wednesday; it was a better performance today. We just didn’t get the points.”
Rudan was aware of the work he had cut out for himself in taking on the Wanderers this season, and said he looked forward to playing a different style of football.
“We still have to get better, and that’s what we strive to do,” he said.
“I saw some improvements today. I saw a team that was challenged, and the character was there to try and win the game.”
Feature image: Western United FC
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