Tara Murray
Western United’s nine-game unbeaten run came to an end in the A-League on Saturday night.
United headed up to Sydney to take on Sydney FC and for the first part it was an even contest.
Milos Ninkovic scored in the first half to give Sydney the lead, before Luciano Narsingh and Mustafa Amini scored in the second half to seal the 3-0 result.
The loss is United’s fourth of the season and the first time since January 21 that they haven’t come away with any points.
United coach John Aloisi said for the first 60 minutes it was a very even game.
“I thought we were playing well,” he said
“They only created that one opportunity in the first half and scored from it. We had a goal that was disallowed marginally, I’m not sure if it should have been disallowed.
“We went 1-0 down [before] starting the [second] half really well, we had our opportunities, but they caught us when they made it 2-0.
“We then started to lose our way and started to chase the game a bit. Sydney started to have their opportunities.”
Aloisi said the disallowed goal had hurt them, with Sydney scoring not long after.
He said while they defended that piece of play poorly, it should have been a United free kick, with Connor Pain clearly pushed.
He said things like that can change a game. Aloisi received a yellow card for his constant comments following that period of play.
“It was super frustrating,” he said. “It wasn’t offside in my opinion. It’s a bit hard to take when those things go against you.
“We didn’t have the rub of the green but we are good enough to react differently.”
The loss leaves United sitting in second spot, one point behind Melbourne City which has played two extra games.
Aloisi said they would take a lot out of the loss and it leaves some things for them to work on.
“It’s only our first loss in the last 10 games,” he said.
“There’s a lot of positives to take away from it and we have to recover quickly. We know how tough this league is, I don’t think we needed a reminder.
“It’s very hard to go in this league without losing. There’s still a long way to go and every game will be difficult.
United’s next game is on Wednesday night against Melbourne Victory. They then face Brisbane Roar on Saturday.
