Wow.

Just.

Wow.

What an unbelievably hard fought, pack in the trenches, life on the line, defend at all costs victory. Any and all cliches under the sun about fighting for your team mates, for the shirt, the club and doing everything that it takes to grind out a win can be used for this match.

Let’s start from the top. Tony Popovic made a fair few changes going into this match, which I have to say, I was rather surprised with. Beauchamp returned as captain to partner Hyphen in the centre of defence. La Rocca kept a starting position but moved up a line to take the injured Poljak’s place. Kresinger pushed out the impressive Joey Gibbs for the starting centre forward position and surprisingly, Ono found himself on the bench for Trifiro to get his first start for the Wanderers.

Popa said post match when quizzed about his selections that he chose the team based on the opposition. I tend to agree and actually said as much when the lineup was announced. Popa expected a physical contest - because Perth have that tag for one reason or another - and so it seems the head Coach based his selections on this premise.

The larger Kresinger was probably selected to battle the likes of Van den Brink. And it was most likely due to the physical Perth midfield that pushed Ono onto the bench. This pushed Mooy forward up the field in a more attacking midfielder role.

Did the changes work?

Well it was hard to say. I did notice though that at times in the first half that Wanderers were holding possession and were playing like the home team instead of an away team. It did not surprise me though because as I’ve said in the past, Western Sydney have not been outplayed by anyone yet and they are not afraid of any team. They take the game to their opponents and force them to change their style.

Wanderers were doing this in the opening 25 minutes by pressing high and forcing the long ball from the Glory defence. When Western Sydney pushed and got the goal in the 15th minute, I was worried that perhaps we had scored too early and would face another Newcastle scenario.

Gilt-edged chances were squandered and Wanderers could easily have been 3-0 up if Hersi and Bridge could control the ball and shoot on target more often. We weathered some light storms but seemed to be either on par or on top of Perth.

And then the red card.

There were a couple things that annoyed me about this decision.

Jamison was pushing the boundaries a number of times and was not getting pulled up for it, this led to Hersi lashing out due to frustration of the ref not doing his job. But what really got to me was the fact the ref quite blatantly made a decision after seeing the replay. Only then did he pull out the red card. A soft red card that changed the game instantly.

I will not be surprised, and I hope, that the Western Sydney Wanderers contest the red card based on the evidence that the ref made his decision by use of the video replay in the stadium.

But then the guts and determination and the team spirit of the Wanderers kicked in. I talked about it last week that the team always goes down swinging and will never give up. Once again, they had to display this character.

Backs against the wall, a defence putting their bodies on the line, a goalkeeper obviously still hurting from conceding 2 goals last week and out with a point to prove, against the odds of a high flying Perth Glory that had an unbelievable record at home and a referee that was doing the team no favours.

For 60 gruelling minutes, the Wanderers hung in there. They rode their luck at times, which I will not deny, but against all odds they stayed in the fight. I noticed late into the second half Perth seemed to merely stop. It seemed they didn’t know what else they could do to break down this wall from Western Sydney. They had thrown everything at the Wanderers goal but couldn’t find the back of the net. Western Sydney had a few half chances to seal the win during this time but for obvious reasons didn’t want to commit too many people forward.

Final whistle, I shout in celebration and the Wanderers SOME HOW come away from Perth with 3 points.

Who needs to go bungy jumping, or jump out of a plane to get an adrenaline fix? Just watch a Wanderers game and you’ll be on the edge of your seat until the 90th minute, every week. Its getting ridiculous, in a humorous sort of way, but its awesome at the same time. I think a lot of Wanderers supporters are aging every week due to the nail biting finishes the team insists on having. Can we not just have a comfortable win for once?!

Western Sydney Wanderers have now beaten both grand finalists, away from home, and have kept the reigning Premiers scoreless. Unbelievable and unprecedented 8 weeks ago.

Teams will underestimate at their own peril. The Wanderers will continue to fear no one.