Tara Murray
Western United returned to the winners list with a second half goal from Steven Lustica enough to seal victory against Melbourne City in the A-League.
Facing an undermanned City, who had six players on international duties, United was made to work hard for the points.
Neither side could find the back of the net in the first half, before a minute of mayhem in the 71st minute gave United the lead.
Alessandro Diamanti had a shot on penalty that missed, but he backed it up and his snap shot then sat up for Lustica to thump into the bottom right corner.
That would be the difference in the 1-0 win.
United coach John Aloisi said he was very proud of the playing group.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” he said.
“Everyone talks about how many players they had out… They are a side that has players who come in and know their structure really well.
“When we weren’t at our best we had to dig in and we fought and defended quite well, when we were playing and winning the ball in good areas, more so in the second half… We had a lot of good chances.
Aloisi said despite having a lot less of the ball than City, they knew that there would be chances and it was a matter of being able to convert.
He said they were disappointed not to have scored a couple more goals.
Aloisi was full of praise for Dylan Pierias who came on in the second half and made an instant impact.
“We knew that we were going to use Dylan Pierias as we thought he could give us that impact and he did it straight away.
“He gave us that impact. Running at players, getting in good positions and getting goal scoring opportunities.
“We felt in the second half, we were starting to get the game in our favour and Dylan gave us that extra lift.”
The match was a special one for Nikolai Topor-Stanley who became the second player to play 350 A-League games.
Aloisi said it was great to celebrate the match with a win.
“He deserves it.”
United will be back on the field on Tuesday night against Macarthur.
Aloisi said they came away with no injuries from Saturday’s game, but expected to go deeper into their squad with a number of matches in a short period of time.
