Maroc - WESTSYDNEYFOOTBALL.COM - reports. - 20/Mar 10:38

Rock Bottom Wanderers Slide Closer To Wooden Spoon

The Western Sydney Wanderers minor hope of making the A-League finals series received a deathblow tonight as Adelaide United came from behind, putting four goals past the Wanderers who could only manage two in response. Gary van Egmond's squad was boosted by the return of Dylan Scicluna and Anthony Pantazopoulos, Joshua Brillante and Aydan Hammond were dropped to the bench after the 2-2 draw against Brisbane Roar last week. Awan Lual was left out of the squad entirely in favour of Jai Rose. Adelaide went with the same starting 11 that drew with Central Coast Mariners, making a single change on the bench with former Melbourne Victory utility Ben Folami taking a spot from youngster Joey Garuccio. The first chance fell to Bozhidar Kraev, with Dylan Scicluna finding Jarrod Carluccio on the right flank. With the defence backing away he found Kraev in open space inside the area, the Bulgarian would be disappointed with the finish as he skewed his shot wide. Seconds later the Wanderers were in front. Adelaide's attempt to play out from the back failed dismally, playing it back and forth between the back four and keeper, then Panagiotis Kikianis finally dribbled forward and with open space and an open Luka Jovanovic not more than 8 meters away, Kikianis missed the target by several meters. Angus Thurgate and Ryan Fraser played it forward quickly, with Scicluna in a right forward location from the press he had left back Alex Gersbach with half the penalty area for himself, his shot was a first time, half-shank but the keeper was going the wrong way. There was a desparate lunge on the line from Bart Vriends but all he could manage to do was change the situation from Gersbach's first A-League goal this season into an own goal for the 34 year old Dutchman. Adelaide threatened and were back level in the 22nd minute. The Wanderers had tracked back to block an Adelaide attack on the right wing, but a dribbling loose ball went across the area, Scicluna was nearest to it but instead of watching the ball and clearing it or finding a pass, he stumbled and shinned the ball to Jovanovic. Adelaide's hitman took two touches to turn, Scicluna didn't recover enough to make a block and the finish was a rocket, slamming into the back of the net past the dive of Thomas. Adelaide kept attacking, Ryan White blazing over the bar with the Wanderers defence standing off. In the last seconds of the first half, Adelaide took the lead. Pantazopoulos was comfortably on the ball but Jarrod Carluccio looked away with a pass incoming, had to stretch his foot out to reach the pass, his touch was atrociously heavy and Adelaide pounced. Ethan Alagich dribbled into the box, his low pass to Juan Muniz surprised the Spanish maestro, whacked him in the shin in his running stride but bounced perfectly toward goal, Thomas dived and his fingertip touch wasn't enough to keep it out. Ryan Fraser was taken off at half-time, he was struggling in the last few minutes before half-time and unable to sprint, with the report from the sideline being an illness that he couldn't shake off. The Wanderers thought they had the leveller through midfielder Steven Ugarkovic. Another shot with poor contact that bounced in the right way to beat the keeper. The VAR intervened and we had another instance this season of a goal being ruled out because a goalkeeper had their sight lines obscured. This time it was Jarrod Carluccio, who had strayed into an offside position in front of the keeper. The bench hardly had time to whinge at the fourth official when Thurgate had a leveller that the VAR couldn't rule out. Pantazopoulos lobbed the ball over the top of the Adelaide defence, they hadn't properly tracked the midfield run of Thurgate. His first touch was to chest the ball forward, the second was a brutal right footed volley that curled away past the Adelaide keeper, 2-2 after 55 minutes. Adelaide were back in front in the 63rd minute, Jovanovic picking up a double with a simple attack down the left flank. Jonny Yull one out decided to pass inside for Jovanovic and he had enough space to take multiple touches, the key one being when Scicluna had an air swing attempt to kick it off his toe, after that there weren't any defenders close enough to make a block, the striker threaded the needle through the central defenders and left Thomas wrongfooted standing in the middle of the goal. There was a brief offside inquiry but not one that lead to a reprieve. Adelaide put the ball in the back of the net again in the 70th minute. Scicluna committed a lazy chop in the Wanderers defensive half, Adelaide packed the penalty area and got the goods with the help of Pantazopoulos. Running back toward his own goal, the central defender threw out a boot, and did little more than stop it's momentum out and turned it into bouncing 3 yards and right in front. The only player in position to hit it was Kikianis and he couldn't miss an open net. There was another VAR check but the lines were in favour of Adelaide and there was still a question about the impact any defender had on Pantazopoulos after. 4-2 with 20 minutes and stoppage time to play, the Wanderers were left hoping for a miracle comeback, and if not, left with a fight to the wooden spoon with Perth Glory. It was another awful loss, another game of ball watching, another game of lazy defence, another game of lazy passing and another game with an inept attack. Gary van Egmond should be sacked as interim coach, he is a dismal failure even as a temporary manager. His tactical ineptitude is on full display and it's obvious that the league has passed him by. The club should go looking for a different person to step into the role along with finding a manager who can imprint on his players the requirement to give effort for the entire match, not just temporarily in patches. There is an international break meaning no match next weekend, the Wanderers next game is against Melbourne City, in Melbourne on Saturday the 4th of April with kick-off at 7:35PM.