A brace from Chelsie Dawber led Adelaide United to a 3-0 road win over Western Sydney Wanderers at Marconi Stadium on Friday night.
“We came straight out after the game delay firing,” Dawber said.
“I think that set the tone for the rest of the game so we’re pretty happy with our whole team performance.”
Wanderers have set an unwanted league record of scoring the least goals ever after eight matches, with their paltry tally staying at two.
“Honestly it’s just devastating because we have improved and we deserved at least a couple of goals tonight,” Wanderers defender Alex Huynh said.
It was a first away win over the Wanderers for Adelaide who climbed above Melbourne Victory into third spot on the ladder.
Huynh was adamant the delay due to the pitch issue wasn’t a factor.
“Honestly we didn’t really think about it, because we are here to do a job, we didn’t consider the field, for us that wasn’t an issue” Huynh said.
Adelaide had 27 shots to eight and had seven more attempts on target than the home side.
United bossed the early minutes and were rewarded when American Kayla Sharples bundled the ball home from close range, after Dawber got to it ahead of Wanderers’ goalkeeper Sarah Langman and headed goalwards.
“I don’t know what part of my body it hit but it just went in,” Sharples said.
Dawber doubled the visitors advantage in the 55th minute, when she was played through by the impressive Fiona Worts and slid the ball past the onrushing Langman from just inside the area.
Another classy Dawber finish in the 87th minute completed a miserable night for the eighth-placed Wanderers.
It gave the United striker her sixth goal of the season and her 11th in her last 13 league appearances.
Wanderers had an early penalty shout turned down after Sheridan Gallagher looked as if she may have been fouled.
Western Sydney suffered a blow when highly-rated defender Clare Hunt was forced off in the 34th minute after injuring a shoulder early in the game.
Langman pulled off some important saves to keep Wanderers in the game until Dawber scored United’s second.
United goalkeeper Analee Grove pulled off a superb diving save to keep out a first-time shot from Huynh, who had replaced Hunt.
The second half was a similar story with Adelaide continuing to create the majority of the chances and Wanderers struggling to manufacture decent opportunities.
