Macarthur FC has dropped three points against a clinical Wellington Phoenix side in a 3-1 loss at Campbelltown Stadium.
The Bulls had a couple of chances to take the lead before The Nix scored the opening by an early penalty which Reno Piscopo converted. Macarthur had trouble finding their rhythm, while Wellington had more opportunities to widen the gap. However, towards the end of the half, The Bulls created more chances and almost found the equaliser.
Macarthur had a glimmer of hope when captain Ulises Dávila scored the equaliser in the second half. Still, it was not enough as Wellington scored two more goals, both by Jaushua Sotirio.
Key Moments
5’| Daniel De Silva created an opportunity for captain Dávila to shoot near the edge of the box. However, the shot went straight to goalkeeper Sail Oliver.
9’| Dávila had another chance on getting his name on the score sheet when he had a shot inside the box, but the goalkeeper saved it.
10’| Penalty for Wellington Phoenix. Craig Noone brought down Sam Sutton inside the box.
12’| Goal for Wellington. Piscopo slots the ball low and hard into the bottom left-hand corner.
24’| Charles M’Mombwa decided to have a shot from long-range that went over the bar after a great run and assist by De Silva.
27’| The Nix could have made it 2-0 after Sotirio put the ball past Filip Kurto, but the goal got ruled out for offside.
35’| Lachie Rose had a great chance of scoring the equaliser when his shot from inside the box got deflected for a corner.
36’| The Bulls came extremely close again to scoring when Oliver saved both Dávila and Šušnjar’s shots in quick succession before Rose’s shot took a deflection for another corner.
45+1’| M’Mombwa had the last chance to give The Bulls the equaliser with a long-range shot, but it went over the target.
58’| GOAL FOR THE BULLS!| The captain, Dávila, has scored the equaliser by slotting the ball into the bottom left corner while inside the box, which De Silva assisted.
69’| The Nix could have taken the lead when Kurto denied Piscopo’s close-range shot.
71’| Goal for Wellington. Sotirio scores from inside the box in a one on one.
77’| Rose came close to scoring the equaliser by a header which Noone crossed.
78’| Goal for Wellington. Sotirio gets his second of the night and third for The Nix after putting the ball into the bottom left corner from inside the box, which Sutton assisted.
85’| Substitute Jake Hollman did well to create space to receive the ball, which gave him the chance to strike from outside the box. However, Oliver saved the shot comfortably.
88’| Tommy Oar crossed the ball into the box, which Hollman made a well-timed header, but a superb flying save by Oliver denied the goal.
“Just thought we were off the pace to be honest,” said Bulls coach Ante Milicic. “Just thought we weren’t sharp enough, we just gave the ball away in the areas where we shouldn’t of.
“[We] didn’t win the second ball, but we defended poorly. We just gave away too many chances, particularly in transition. In the end we knew it would be difficult coming off such a long break that we did and backing up for us we just weren’t there today, so obviously disappointed with the performance and with that performance that’s the result you get.
“We worked hard to get back into the game at 1-1, but you know you’ve got a game on Thursday and Sunday, so you have to take Uli [Dávila] off, you have to take Apo [Giannou] off, so you’re making subs on the base of that, whereas, you would normally leave those players on.
“Uli [Dávila] scored a goal, you got a little bit of momentum, you’ve crawled yourself back into the game. But then you know you don’t want to lose players of that calibre because if you lose a player like that for two weeks, that’s five games.
“I still expected us to be better today, but I could see how we passed, how we moved, how we fall for that second ball, the decisions that we made; I could just see that wasn’t the Macarthur team that’s of expected at the start of the season.
“Today we were poor, wasn’t our day, but we dust ourselves off and we’ll regroup and we’ll go again.”
Wellington Phoenix: 3 (Piscopo 12’ (P), Sotirio 71’, 78’)
Macarthur FC: 1 (Dávila 58’)
Wellington Phoenix: 20. SAIL Oliver (GK), 6. PAYNE Timothy, 7. SANDOVAL Gael (8. OLD Benjamin 90’), 9. BALL David (18. WAINE Benjamin 90+3), 10. PISCOPO Reno, 11. SOTIRIO Jaushua (43. VAN HATTUM Oskar 89’), 14. RUFER Alex (C) (13. PENNINGTON Nicholas 90+3), 19. SUTTON Sam, 21. LAWS Joshua, 23. LEWIS Clayton, 33. SURMAN Finn (16. FENTON Louis 67’)
Substitutes: 40. PAULSEN Alexander (GK), 32. OTT Benjamin
Macarthur FC: 12. KURTO Filip (GK), 6. JOVANOVIC Aleksandra (23. MARIAPPA Adrian 46’), 7. DE SILVA Daniel, 10. DAVILA Ulises (C) (21. HOLLMAN Jake 65’), 14. NAJJAR Moudi, 15. SUSNJAR Aleksandar, 17. NOONE Craig, 20. USKOK Tomislav, 24. M’MOMBWA Kokola (8. MUTCH Jordon 46’), 31. ROSE Lachlan, 99. GIANNOU Apostolos (35. TOURE Al Hassan 65’)
Substitutes: 1. SUMAN Nicholas (GK), 4. MEREDITH James
Venue: Campbelltown Stadium
Referee: Alex King
Assistant referees: Owen Goldrick and Greg Taylor
Fourth Official: Stephen Lucas
