Sweet revenge ... Beauchamp scores the winner against his old club. Source: Gregg Porteous / News Limited
Western Sydney turned the tables on cross-town rivals Sydney FC with a classy 2-0 win in their A-League derby at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
After losing 1-0 at home in the first clash between the sides in October, the Wanderers always looked in control as they sealed a sweet maiden derby triumph in front of 26,176 fans.
Wanderers coach Tony Popovic said the win against his former club ranked as one of the club's greatest moments yet.
"There've been a lot of milestones at this club from the first pre-season game, winning our first (A-League) game against Brisbane, now this one," Popovic said.
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Coast | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 26 |
| 2 | Adelaide | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 22 |
| 3 | Victory | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | -3 | 17 |
| 4 | Western Sydney | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 16 |
| 5 | Perth | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 14 |
| 6 | Newcastle | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | -8 | 13 |
| 7 | Wellington | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 12 |
| 8 | Heart | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 12 |
| 9 | Brisbane | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 11 |
| 10 | Sydney | 11 | 3 | 1 | 7 | -11 | 10 |
"This was sweet. This was special. I certainly enjoyed that."
Popovic said the performance illustrated how far his side had come since the derby loss at Parramatta Stadium, when the coach felt his side had been overawed.
"We matched them this time with intensity," he said.
"... I think it just shows how much we've improved as a club, from round three to now. We're certainly on the right track."
Goals in either half to Ethiopian-born midfielder Youssouf Hersi and captain Michael Beauchamp ensured the Wanderers climbed up to fourth spot and continued a superb debut season.
The Sky Blues remain last after failing to build on a valuable win away to Wellington last week.
Re-live the game with our A-League Match Centre, featuring video highlights of all the key moments!
They welcomed back Brett Emerton and Terry Antonis from Socceroos duty but marquee star Alessandro Del Piero started on the bench as he continues to battle a troublesome hamstring.
The Italian striker came on with 20 minutes to go but had little impact as the Sky Blues struggled to penetrate a well-organised Western Sydney defence.
The early stages were evenly contested but the Wanderers quickly began causing problems for Sydney's defence.
Mateo Poljak was allowed space to shoot in the eighth minute but his effort went just wide.
Lacopo La Rocca also wasted a good chance before Shinji Ono came close with an ambitious volley in the 17th minute.
Western Sydney continued to mount pressure and capitalised when Hersi struck his first A-League goal in the 24th minute.
Sydney defender Seb Ryall failed to clear a dangerous Jerome Polenz cross and Hersi showed great composure to turn and score from close range.
Ono almost doubled the advantage six minutes later with a curling, long-range effort floating just wide.
Sydney created little in attack with Adam Griffiths wasting their best chance of the half, hitting a header wide from Jason Culina's 33rd minute free kick.
Sky Blues coach Frank Farina injected Ali Abbas off the bench midway through the second half but the home fans got the substitution they wanted when Del Piero replaced Culina in the 70th minute.
However it failed to halt the Wanderers, who doubled their advantage seven minutes later.
Sydney were again punished for failing to clear, with Ono's cross finding its way to Beauchamp on the back post and the former Sky Blues defender smashed it into the roof of the net.
Farina gave an honest assessment of the performance, and the job ahead for the club.
"I think the disappointing thing is we were outplayed tonight pretty much on all fronts," Farina said.
"You've got to be honest about it. They were more enthusiastic and it's disappointing coming off the back of a good win last week and not being able to back it up, at least performance-wise.
"We've got work to do. I knew that when I came here and we have to try and get that consistency."
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