Tara Murray
Western United returned to the winners in the A-League Men’s competition for the first time since round one of Friday night against the Brisbane Roar.
In the battle of the Aloisi brothers, with United coach John Aloisi coaching against his brother Ross Aloisi for the first time, it was John that got the last laugh despite being sent from the field.
The match was a classic with United captain Josh Risdon scoring the winner in stoppage time, with United winning 2-1.
There was plenty of drama in the first half, with both sides having shots on goal and United was awarded a penalty when Ben Garuccio was called to have been felled in the box.
The penalty was overturned by VAR much to the displeasure of United fans.
United had opportunities early in the second half but couldn’t convert.
Roar on the other hand was able to take the ball up the end and get a penalty. While the shot missed, a spot kick from the resulting play resulted in the Roar scoring and taking the lead.
United thought it had an equaliser in double quick time but a late offside call mean the goal was disallowed.
Amidst all that, John Aloisi, who had just been yellow carded in the aftermath of the Brisbane penalty, was shown a second yellow and send from the ground.
The assumption was the second caution came after the manager’s exuberant celebrations, which included kicking one of the advertising bolsters in his technical area.
United was then denied another goal when Michael Ruhs then put the ball in the net, but the ball bounced onto his arm as he controlled it and the referee promptly whistled for a handball.
Another minute later and yet more drama as United had two shouts for handball, the second saw Jack Hingert penalised and a penalty awarded after a VAR review.
Daniel Penha converted to level the scores.
The final twist came, with Lachie Wales whipping in a corner which Risdon flew courageously into traffic to meet, clipping his header into the back of the net to give his side a 2-1 lead and ultimately the win.
Aloisi had definitely deserved to get a result like that.
“Take away a couple of poor performances, out of the six games we’ve played that we’ve lost, we deserve to win four of them,” he said.
“We got what we deserved tonight, excellent performance. We created a lot of chances especially in that first half, we opened them up quite a few times.
“They create a lot of chances… and we restricted them, they had hardly any chances.
“We defended well, we attacked well.
Aloisi admits it has been hard for the group having had little success this season despite having played some good soccer.
He said the changes they made were only small ones as they wanted to try some things which did pay off.
Aloisi said he didn’t think he deserved the second yellow card, saying that he was only showing emotion at what he thought was a goal.
He said he was unsure whether he would be suspended for this week’s match against Sydney FC.
United now sit in 11th spot with two wins, up one spot with the win.
