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Wanderers prevail against Melbourne City
Western Sydney has taken a giant step towards the A-League Premiers Plate after holding on for a 4-3 win against Melbourne City.
PT1M29S 620 349Western Sydney coach Tony Popovic has labelled his team "genuine contenders" after the Wanderers produced their best performance of the season to topple Melbourne City 4-3.
Popovic isn't one to gush over his team's efforts but the former Socceroo didn't hesitate to heap further expectation on his side after a near faultless first 75 minutes against City on Friday night.
Looking very good: Western Sydney Wanderers impressed in their win over Melbourne City. Photo: Getty Images
"I said the day before the game, if our performance is good, regardless of the result, we're genuine contenders," Popovic said.
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"The result just tops that off. But the performance was very good, so we have to be genuine contenders."
The Wanderers coasted out to a 3-0 lead before Harry Novillo and Bruno Fornaroli combined to score two goals in as many minutes and set up an enthralling finish in the top-of-the-table showdown.
A Brendon Santalab goal in the 89th minute put the result beyond doubt, but the real hero was striker Mark Bridge, who bagged a brace in what has been a stellar season for the veteran.
"I think he's playing better than he ever has at our club," Popovic said of Bridge.
"Putting the goals aside in year one, and how important they were, I just feel his whole game, even mentally where he's at, he just understands the game so well and he deserves everything that's happening for him at the moment."
Deployed mostly as a winger, the 30-year-old has recently been thrown into the striker role to fill the void left by recently omitted under-firing marquee Federico Piovaccari.
Bridge has scored eight goals this season, equalling Mitch Nichols as the club's leading goalscorers.
"The circumstances are the way they are, I'm playing there at the moment and things are going well," Bridge said.
"It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but everyone's collectively working well. It's looking like my best season at the moment, as a whole it probably is."
Bridge said he felt comfortable in the Wanderers' attacking football style they have adopted this season, a notable difference from the Popovic-coached teams of the first three years.
"I think the style is suiting me," Bridge said. "We have quality midfielders and Mitchy behind me as well, that makes my job a lot easier." Bridge said.
City coach John van 't Schip admitted the Wanderers' aggressive approach unsettled his star trio, and questioned his team's desire after the loss.
"They were very physical and, as we can expect, were targeting Bruno [Fornaroli ], Harry [Novillo] and Aaron [Mooy]," van 't Schip said.
"We maybe didn't have the right answer for that, so they clearly wanted it more.
"In the end, they were aggressive and really wanting to get a good result, and we didn't have that enough."