Western United wasn’t able to keep its good form going, losing to Melbourne City 2-0 in a fiery A-League Men derby on Tuesday night.
Missing eight first-choice players due to injury, City dominated their Victorian rivals at AAMI Park to make it through a sixth-straight match unbeaten.
“We are super resilient at the moment and we’ve had to be with all the injuries that we’ve had,” City coach Aurelio Vidmar said. “The young boys have had to step up and they’ve been great. Super resilient.
“I’ve got to take my hat off to them.
“Even though we were suffering throughout that game at times … they just really dug deep.”
Tensions boiled over multiple times with United coach John Aloisi given a yellow card in the final minutes after his players were furious about a tackle from City’s Ben Dubar.
“I still don’t understand why I got a yellow, but I have to deal with it,” Aloisi said. “I wasn’t talking to the fourth official or the referee at that stage, I was talking to someone else.”
Harry Politidis, who only scored his first A-League goal four days earlier, broke the deadlock in the 32nd minute after capitalising on a corner from 17-year-old debutant Lawrence Wong.
City’s hard work and persistence was truly rewarded when Ben Mazzeo slotted an excellent shot from a difficult angle in the 59th minute to get past United goalkeeper Matthew Sutton.
They were denied a third goal in the 82nd minute following a late offside call.
Coming off a rousing 3-2 win in Perth on Friday night, the comedown of that performance and the travel to and from Western Australia seemed to leave United flat and uninspired in attack.
Aloisi’s team managed just one shot on target as they failed to complete a club-record fifth-straight win.
The hero from United’s triumph against the Glory, Jordan Lauton had to sit out this clash after earning a second yellow card following his spectacular matchwinner.
City’s injury crisis threatened to escalate further after captain Aziz Behich and star Nathaniel Atkinson both had extended periods in pain on the turf.
But Wong’s impressive debut ended in the 49th minute when he was subbed out with cramp.
Andreas Kuen was injured against Wellington on Friday, joining Yonatan Cohen, Mat Leckie, Marco Tilio, Andrew Nabbout, Max Caputo, Alessandro Lopane and Jimmy Jeggo on the sidelines.
United was back in action on Friday night, after deadline, in another derby against Melbourne Victory.
