Wyong 2 – 3 Wyoming
This week’s match of the round took place at a chilly Baker Park, where hosts Wyong took on Wyoming.
Wyong were looking to continue the great efforts of their reserve side, who won their match 2-0, while Wyoming were looking to win and move ever closer to promotion back to the Premier League.
Ultimately, the visitors would take the three points, holding off a late Wyong fightback to emerge from the cold as winners.
From the get-go, Wyoming set out to do what they do best: dominate down the wings.
Wyoming’s start was so fast that Wyong looked almost shell-shocked momentarily and they ended up penned into their half for most of the opening period, meaning soon enough, the Tigers would take the lead.
The opener came after some nice work down the right wing, which allowed for a neat ball into Tiger’s striker Reegan Cairns, centrally just on the edge of the box. Cairns received the ball with his back to goal but held off the defence before turning quickly and nailing the ball into the bottom left corner to make it 1-0.
From here, Wyong’s issues became more apparent. Rushed passes and a solid Wyoming defence made it nearly impossible for the Emus to transition into attack, leaving their striker Matt Rawsthorne isolated with minimal chances.
The deficit for the hosts nearly doubled not long after some more impressive buildup from Wyoming.
Cairns played Brendan Martin through on goal into the box. Martin shot and drew a great save from Wyong keeper Michael Seaborn, but it only went as far as Tiger’s left winger Patrick Mills. Mills got it back to Martin, who cut the ball back to Branko Bojanic, who drew another great save from Seaborn diving to his right to keep his side only down one.
But Wyoming’s pressure was relentless, and despite Seaborn’s heroic efforts, the lead was soon doubled, once again through work down the right wing.
This time, Martin charged down the right and wrong-footed his defender by cutting back infield before putting a perfect ball into the box to the feet of Bojanic, who made no mistake the second time around, thumping it home across his body to the right for 2-0.
Here is when Wyong kicked into gear and started to gain some momentum.
Their best chance of the half came when Samuel Zappala found himself on the right wing, where he put in a great cross to the back post, hitting Rawsthorne, who outjumped his defender to meet the ball with his head, but he couldn’t get enough on it to trouble Joshua Byrnes in goals for Wyoming.
Looking to build on this, the Emus would continue to play on the front foot in the half’s closing stages.
Another chance came their way when Jackson Stone in the Wyong midfield took a long shot from way outside the box, earning a good save from Byrnes.
However, the ball didn’t go out, and Wyong were instantly punished for committing more players forward.
Byrnes would end up back on the ball in a flash, and once he was, he unleashed a perfect lob over everyone on the field except for Bojanic, who got onto the ball clean through on goal without a defender in sight. From there, he knew what to do, chipping the ball over a rushing Seaborn and making it 3-0.
This was enough to send the game into halftime on a frustrating note for the home side, but it was the perfect finish for a dominant Tigers outfit.
When the second half commenced, the game seemed to have lost some steam.
Wyong did have an early chance when Zappala got his head onto a ball sent into the box by a freekick, but outside of that, neither side was clicking.
One thing became clear, though: the Wyong defence, led by Jayden Vella and Riely Fisher as the centre-backs, looked a lot more composed, and they kept Wyoming at bay throughout the half.
Slowly, though, Wyong began to lift, thanks mainly to the efforts of Bailey Koopman, who came on from the bench to play as a second striker.
This new look almost instantly paid dividends when some nice interplay between Rawsthorne, Stone, and Koopman resulted in a dangerous shot on goal for the Emus that forced Byrnes into making another solid save.
The scoreline was still heavily against them, but Wyong were now beginning to take the game to the Tigers, and they would claw one back.
The Emu’s opener was a superb counter-attacking goal that began when a long ball found Rawsthorne and Koopman in a 2-2 with retreating Wyoming defenders. Rawsthorne was on the ball and managed to draw both centre-backs before playing a perfect through ball to Koopman, just missing the outstretched leg of Tiger’s captain Jarred McNee, to put his teammate through on goal, where he calmly slid the ball home to the bottom left to make it 3-1.
Wyoming now needed to be slightly wary; time was on their side, but Wyong had nothing to lose, and they began to play like it.
Throwing players forward, Wyong looked to grab another goal back. While Wyoming continued to attack, they weren’t getting the great chances they had in the first half, and as the game got close to full-time, the scoreline was suddenly 3-2.
The second goal for the hosts came when a corner was sent into a packed box and only got cleared out to Wyong’s Eizen Takahira, who was given time on the perimeter and took a moment before producing a perfectly weighted chip shot up over everyone that managed to dip just below the crossbar out of reach for Byrnes and into the net for 3-2.
Now frantically searching for an equaliser, with only five minutes left to play, Wyong would get one final chance to complete the comeback.
From another poorly cleared corner, the ball would fall to Stone this time, who shot with pure power. However, it wasn’t enough to beat Byrnes, who made the save and secured the victory for his team as the whistle sounded not long after.
It was a valiant effort from Wyong, who won the second half 2-0, but Wyoming showed precisely why they are so close to securing promotion in the first half and earned what turned out to be a thrilling 3-2 win.
Talking with Wyoming player-coach Ian McAndrew after the game, he noted how substitutes changed the game but was happy his defence did just enough.
“At half time, we made two subs just to rest a few important players, and this upset our performance in the second half,” McAndrew said.
“But taking nothing away from Wyong, they fought and scrap hard and scored two of their own in the 2nd half.
“Some good tactical subs from Wyong really gave us a headache, but my defence held strong to see us come out on top 3-2.
“Good luck to Wyong for the remainder of the season”.
While talking to Wyong coach Brenton Westley he noted his teams slow start and the efforts they provided to get back into the contest.
“From the kick off Wyoming set their intentions to press hard and attack with lots of pace attacking from different directions,” Westley said.
“This threw some of us off our game plan which only aided Wyoming to be the dominant team for the whole first half scoring 3 goals.
“Half time gave us a much-needed break where we went over the game plan and the importance to follow it to which we did for the second half.
“Two old guys for Wyong came on towards the end where we managed to score two goals and pushed hard but couldn’t find the equaliser”.
Match Official – Dylan Watson
Written by Mark Goodyear
Men’s Division 1 Results –
Women’s Division 1 Results –
