Western United rose temporarily to third spot on the Isuzu UTE A-League Men table after a 2-2 draw with Central Coast Mariners at Ironbark Fields on Wednesday night.
A dominant start to the game was rewarded with Noah Botic netting the opener before Central Coast came back to lead at half-time against the run of play.
Western huffed and puffed and eventually blew the Mariners’ resistance down when Ben Garuccio scored a spectacular free-kick inside the final 20 minutes.
Chances came and went at both ends in the closing stages as United had to settle for a point, remaining unbeaten at Ironbark Fields this season.
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With 12 days between matches, John Aloisi made just one alteration to his starting XI with Matthew Grimaldi returning on the left-hand side of midfield. Tate Russell started at right-back in his 100th Isuzu UTE A-League appearance.
Abel Walatee dropped to the bench and was joined by Jake Najdovski, who was back amongst the subs, and Michael Vonja in his first matchday squad appearance of the season.
First Half
There was a relatively mellow pace to the game in the opening exchanges as both sides navigated the conditions and the flow of the contest early on.
As has been the case often at Ironbark Fields this season, Western United settled into the match the quicker of the teams and began to dictate possession and probe the Mariners defence.
Angus Thurgate was his typically busy self and threatened with a number of late runs in behind, while some of the link-up play between the wingers, attackers and overlapping full-backs was superb to watch.
One such dazzling move resulted in the first goal just after the half hour mark. After working all the way over to the right flank, Garuccio found Riku Danzaki who spun and clipped a glorious cross into the box, inviting Botic to flick his header over the goalkeeper and into the net.
That was the goal that United craved and deserved for its dominance, but within 10 minutes Central Coast had hit back to take an unlikely lead.
The first was fortuitous as a deep free-kick flew all the way into the far corner off the boot of Mikael Doka, while the second came courtesy of some incisive passing and a lovely cross by Nathan Paull that was finished off by Ryan Edmondson.
Second Half
Western United set about regaining its dominance from the opening half hour and immediately got on the front foot after the interval.
A Thurgate free-kick from an almost identical position to Doka’s nearly produced an identical result. Dylan Peraic-Cullen misjudged it coming off his line and Tomoki Imai was arriving around the back, but he was just a fraction of a second late and couldn’t get a meaningful connection to steer it in.
The Green and Black continued to probe but as Central Coast got more comfortable sitting back on their lead, the gaps in the visitors’ defence were becoming harder to come by.
One big opening did come for Botic to add a second when Thurgate lifted a ball over the defence for Danzaki to head back across goal, but the No.19 also didn’t get a clean strike on his effort. The offside flag was raised against Danzaki, but VAR may well have had an input had the ball gone in.
Patience ultimately paid off for the hosts as the equaliser came 10 minutes after that near miss with Garuccio stepping up for a captain’s goal, wrong-footing the goalkeeper and finding the bottom corner with an intelligent free-kick.
United kept on the front foot in the hopes of another late winner with Hiroshi Ibusuki and Rhys Bozinovski firing off target heading into injury time.
Central Coast found a chance on the counter attack as Western continued to push, but Matt Sutton was on hand with a supreme one-on-one save to deny Doka, ensuring the match ended level.
