Western Sydney Wanderers continued their winning start to the season with a 1-0 victory over the Newcastle Jets in a round-two match interrupted by lightning at Bankwest Stadium on Friday night.
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A penalty proved the difference on the scoresheet but the match was mostly one-sided with a dominant Wanderers having the lion's share of possession and 26 shots on goal compared to Newcastle's four.
The match was stopped just shy of the 30 minute-mark and delayed for half an hour due to lightning.
Jets coach Craig Deans made some tactical changes during the enforced break but Newcastle continued to be overrun by the hosts when play resumed.
While Wanderers played fluidly and stuck their passes at a high percentage, Newcastle's chances were limited and they were wasteful when they did have the ball.
The Jets were however gritty in defence and withstood a mountain of pressure throughout the game, which was locked 0-0 at the break.
The hosts were unlucky not to be up at half-time after United States import Lynn Williams, in her first appearance in the red and black, scored in the 31st minute only to be ruled offside. The replay showed Williams in line with the Jets defence when Ella Mastrantonio released the ball into the box for the American.
The 59th minute penalty was also controversial. It was awarded when Jets co-captain Clare Wheeler was deemed to have handballed in the box but the midfielder adamantly claimed the ball had hit her torso.
Matilda Amy Harrison, who caused constant problems for the Jets, gave the Wanderers a 1-0 advantage when she slotted into the bottom left corner with the spot kick.
Jets coach Craig Deans was more disappointed with the performance than the result after his charges had produced a strong first-round effort five days earlier to draw 1-1 with competition heavyweights Melbourne City.
"We didn't give a very good account of ourselves and after playing so well last week to probably do the exact opposite this week is the most disappointing thing," Deans said.
"We just need to learn from it and make sure we understand where we went wrong and basically don't put in another performance like that again."
Wanderers have never made the finals since joining the W-League in 2012 and opened up the purse strings this season to put together a side that showed last night they would be championship contenders.
"They're a very good team, so I'd expect them to comfortably finish in the top two and do very well in the finals," Deans said.
"That's not going to be an easy game for anyone. We tried our best to try to prevent them from getting the ball to Lynn Williams and Kristen Hamilton, their two main threats, but their midfield was very good and we struggled a little bit to get control of the midfield."
The result elevated Wanderers to six points while the Jets, who host Canberra on November 30, stayed on one point.
