Rare win, clean sheet has Aloisi pleased despite the cost
Wins have been a rare joy for Western United this season, rare enough that coach John Aloisi isn’t going to sweat the decimated defence his side’s 2-0 win over Newcastle has left him.
For just the third time this A-League Men season, Western United won a football game. For the first time, they’ve kept a clean sheet. Both, coach John Aloisi fell were richly deserved and something to savour, even if the fallout from Friday evening’s 2-0 win over the Newcastle will leave him in a difficult position come Tuesday night’s clash with crosstown foes Melbourne Victory.
Backed by a standout performance from goalkeeper Thomas Heward-Belle, a 16th minute penalty from Daniel Penha and 55th minute effort from Noah Botić proved enough for United to bring up a rare win, a result that sees them move within five points of Perth Glory amidst their efforts to escape the A-League Men’s cellar.
Salvaged by a desperate clearance off the line by Josh Risdon in the dying moments, the clean sheet was the first logged by United in a league fixture since a 1-0 win over Adelaide in April of 2023, with Jets boss Rob Stanton bemoaning his side’s inability to take their chances and flat performance post-game.
“It's been a while, of course, and we felt we deserved the win tonight,” reflected Aloisi. “But we felt in other games that we deserved more out of those games, so we just kept on plugging away and making sure that the players still believed and still worked for each other.
“And they showed that tonight, they've been showing it all season. Even when the results haven't been there they keep working hard for each other and that's all we can ask for. The effort's there.
“In the first half we played with good energy, we created a lot of opportunities. And then you know a little bit towards the end of the game you can see there's a bit of anxiety because we hadn't won for a while and hadn't kept the clean sheet all season. So it was nice to get a clean sheet as well.”
But while the win was certainly a very welcome development for Aloisi and his side, it arrived with a sting in the tail: James Donachie in the 90th minute and Josh Risdon picking up a caution that will see him suspended for the coming clash with Victory thanks to yellow card accumulation.
With injury already having decimated the United backline, it means the Western Melbourne side will likely be forced to put Tomoki Imai on babysitting duty in a highly inexperienced backline on Tuesday evening.
“We have to deal with it,” Aloisi succinctly put it. “Yeah, Donachie will be out, Risdon will be out suspended, Jacob Tratt will still be out, not sure if Ben Garrucio will be back, Connor O'Toole will be out. We have to deal with it.
“We dealt with it tonight. We had Charbel [Shamoon] come in and we'll see what we do on Tuesday night.
“We'll discuss, we'll see how everyone else has pulled up. Our NPL team played tonight so we'll see how players pulled up in that game; I was quickly on the phone to make sure they took a couple of players off because we're going to need them on Tuesday.”
But while Aloisi will likely find himself short-handed for the clash with Victory, who face Melbourne City in another derby meeting on Saturday evening, he can perhaps take some heart from the game being staged at AAMI Park.
All three of United’s wins this season have come on Swan St, the venue seemingly providing much greater home comforts than trips down the highway to play in Ballarat or across the Tasman to play in Hobart.
United is hoping that their move into their training facility at the tail end of the season, playing at least three games there in April, room will bring a similar level of success but Aloisi wasn’t prepared to draw a line through his side’s horror campaign and their travelling roadshow.
"Look, we've been on a journey, we understand that,” he said. “We're not looking for excuses for where we are on the table.
“We have enjoyed playing [at AAMI Park] and we hope that in Tarneit, we make it a fortress as well. And I believe we will."