It was only for 2 hours, but damn it tasted good. I’m not talking about an all you can eat cevapi and gelato buffet. No, I’m talking about being at the top of the mountain that is the A-League ladder, even if it was for 120 minutes.

Everyone all but expected the Wanderers to beat Perth at home and continue the dream run. But the Glory made it difficult and with a little bit of luck, by way of Thwaite’s deflection, gave Western Sydney the 3 points to continue the pressure on Central Coast Mariners.

Western Sydney hadn’t played at Wanderland since beating Melbourne Heart on Australia Day. Our first game back at home was marred by near monsoonal rain conditions all day. It was an annoyance because everyone expected a huge crowd and the rain was surely going to shun people away. Having said that, nearly twelve thousand people still showed up to support the Wanderers. I also noticed that it poured prior to kickoff but ceased altogether in the first half. Then at half time there was a 15 minute downpour once again which stopped when the second half went underway and only returned 5 minutes before full time. Strange. Or perhaps divine intervention?

Western Sydney had the better of the chances but the game was rather a stalemate for large portions of it. It was great however to finally see Aaron Mooy get the monkey off his back and score his first ever goal in the A-League. He has come so close so many times and a lucky deflection helped him get on the scoresheet.

Vukovic didn’t make any friends by abusing a ball boy verbally which set off the RBB behind him. Thwaite added to the hostility by complaining to the ref to get Dino sent off then inciting the RBB afterwoods after they let their opinion known to him. But the Wanderers held firm in their resolve, the entire stadium sung in the rain and the players, as always, celebrated with their fans with chants and flags.

Tasting first place for a couple of hours was ever so sweet. And dare I say, the players and the fans want more. For this team that was favourites to get the wooden spoon before the season started, it’s amazing where they are now. There are people saying that perhaps the Wanderers have peaked too early. I disagree. There is no such thing as peaking too early in football. Its all about consistency. There are plenty of stories of teams going undefeated an entire season, so peaking too early is irrelevant.

Wanderers are now 7 games into a winning streak. The record is Melbourne’s 8 games in that memorable Season 2. In order to equal the record, Western Sydney has to beat the one team in the competition that they are yet to defeat. Adding more difficulty to the equation is the fact that Central Coast are unbeaten at home this season. Its funny how football writes these stories by itself.

Some are now calling this the Premiership decider. There will still be 4 games following this one which includes the Sydney Derby. There are plenty of opportunities for either Wanderers and Mariners to drop points, but next week’s game will definitely be a huge deciding factor on who takes ownership of the Premiers Plate.

There’s expected to be a huge contingent of travelling away support making the trip up the the coast. For some, it’ll probably take less time to get to Gosford than it does to get to Moore Park. Last time I checked, the Away Supporters section was into the fifth bay. We are bringing the noise and the passion with us and will do all we can to give the players as much as a home ground advantage that we can. If you can’t play at Wanderland, we’ll simply bring Wanderland to you.