Tara Murray
Western United continues to impress in the A-League with a 1-0 win against Melbourne City on Saturday night.
United shocked the reigning champions to earn a second straight win and put the competition on notice.
Dylan Wenzel-Halls made it two goals in as many matches, scoring in the 20th minute.
The goal would be enough, with United holding on in the second half.
Swiss defender Leo Lacroix continued his impressive start to his time at United, being named best on ground.
United coach John Aloisi said that you could see on the faces of the supporters how much the win meant.
“We knew it was going to be hard,” he said.
“City is obviously one of the best teams in the competition and we knew it was going to be tough.
“We thought if we worked well together and we did. We fought hard and were organised defensively.
“If we were calm and confident on the ball we would be able to hurt them. We created some good opportunities, I thought it was a very good performance.”
Aloisi said the win, which follows one against Perth Glory the previous round, showed that the side was on the right track.
He said the biggest thing for him was that they would continue to get better as the side plays more matches.
“There’s still a lot of improving to do and we will improve that is the positive, we know we need to pick up points now, we will still get stronger and still have players to come back in.”
Aloisi said the defensive side of the group’s games continued to stand up when it was needed, with Lacroix leading the way.
He said they were yet to concede a goal from open play, which is a massive plus.
The form of Wenzel-Halls is another thing making Aloisi smile. While he’s scoring goals, Aloisi said it was his all round game that had been impressive.
“Dylan was tremendous,” he said.
“We worked a lot with Dylan through the pre-season. In preseason we worked with him, when to go, what triggers to go, when he needs to drop in.
“I thought he was outstanding, he’s a pain for a defender and that is what you want from your striker.”
Aloisi said fellow striker Aleksandar Prijovic, who missed the game, will miss a couple of weeks with hamstring tightness.
United doesn’t have long to rest with their FFA Cup clash against Wellington Phoenix on Tuesday night.
Aloisi said there would be some changes to the line up.
“There will be a lot of rotations,” he said.
“We want to win every game and not to dismiss the FFA Cup, there are other players who haven’t started games and they deserve an opportunity.
“I don’t want a situation… where a player gets injured. We don’t want to take a risk.”
