Le Fondre’s return sinks Western

Adam Le Fondre has marked his return with a matchwinning penalty, sending Sydney FC back into second-place against a dogged Western United outfit at Mars Stadium.

The English striker returned to the side from the bench after a title-winning tenure at Mumbai City, and within minutes he opened his account – slamming home a penalty in the 76th minute.

Sydney’s win ends a two-game skid and puts them back in the hunt for a top-two finish in a logjammed run home for the final six spots on the A-League standings.

However, it makes it five games without a win for Western United, placing their finals hopes in doubt – sitting three points outside the top six with four games to play.

Western came out of the sheds content with Sydney having much of the ball in the early stages, looking to play exclusively off the break.

Ryan Scott was called into action numerous times as the Sky Blues loomed ominously early as Kosta Barbarouses and Trent Buhagiar forced three smart saves from the Western goalkeeper.

Barbarouses, in particular, was denied after cutting inside and having his low stinging effort palmed away by Scott after 37 minutes.

After the break, United finally mustered up a chance in anger as Alessandro Diamanti almost fashioned an equaliser from nowhere.

Sydney still looked the most likely and eventually found their opener from the spot after VAR found Ivan Vujica handled Alex Baumjohann’s cross.

Le Fondre stepped up confidently and placed his penalty right into the top corner to seal the win.

Sydney edged Western out of a nailbiter. (Photo by Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images)Source:Getty Images

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Western goalkeeper Ryan Scott was the clear Man of the Match – by a mile.

After conceding eight goals in two games, Mark Rudan backed in Scott to continue between the sticks despite his dip in form and the 25-year-old rewarded the coach with a superb performance between the sticks.

As Sydney threatened, Scott stood firm, and despite conceding an almost unsavable penalty, the Western shot-stopper made a bunch of great saves and showed no signs that the two heavy defeats had rocked his confidence.

LE FONDRE IS BACK

ALF is back and he has already tallied ‘sausage roll’ number one for the season.

Le Fondre left Sydney at the end of last season after two-title winning seasons with the Sky Blues – scoring 39 goals in 57 games and he picked up right where he left off after his introduction.

The Englishman adds another bow to Sydney’s already stacked attack as they look to be the first A-League side to ever claim a ‘threepeat’.

WESTERN CLOCKING UP THE KILOMETRES

It’s fair to say Western United have accumulated their fair share of frequent flyer mileage over the past fortnight.

Saturday’s contest at Mars Stadium made it the fifth game in a fifth different location over the space of 15 days as they concluded their ‘Contiki tour’ on Wednesday.

All up, United have accumulated approximately 9672 kilometres in their round trip (including returning to Melbourne twice) which saw them play in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and now to Ballarat – while Sydney suited up for their third game during that time.

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