Had you turned up at Illinden Sports Centre as Wollongong and Sydney FC were walking off the field on Sunday, it would have been hard to tell which side had won.
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The Sky Blues were full of energy, their coaches thrilled and players in high spirits.
The Wolves were far less exuberant, many disappointed, others frustrated.
Wollongong had escaped with a 4-3 win, not that you could tell after the match.
The Wolves looked like they had lost and coach Luke Wilkshire said it felt that way too.
"It feels like we lost the game," Wilkshire said. "That's how it feels.
"I was disappointed with the last goal. I'll have to take a look at the other two, but the last goal was really poor on our part. We knew they were lobbing balls in behind for the young boy.
"Again, we were not clinical enough in front of goal. The amount of chances we're creating, we scored four which is great, but we should be scoring more."
A Wollongong victory looked a formality from the early exchanges, Josh Bingham opening the scoring in the fourth minute.
Thomas James made it 2-0 four minutes later, before Bingham had a second goal midway through the first half.
With the race for the premiership heating up, the Wolves knew only a win would suffice.
"We knew we had two games left and no other option but to get the three points," Bingham said.
"We came up here and had a game plan, we started the first half well, really took it to them. We even came out in the second half doing what we wanted to do."
After a disappointing opening half, Sydney FC returned from the sheds with far more intent.
That intent translated to chances, the Wolves weathering an early onslaught.
The chances denied, Takeru Okada and James combined on the counter attack, Okada making it 4-0.
The goal came shortly after the match between Rockdale and Sydney United 58 concluded. The 2-2 draw saw Illinden climb to 21 points on the ladder, the Wolves seemingly just 33 minutes away from sitting level with their rivals on points.
Instead it was Sydney FC who pressed hard, the Sky Blues Youth team full of running in hot and blustery conditions.
Eventually they broke through. One goal soon turning into two before a third in the 92nd minute made for a nervy conclusion.
Sydney FC came close to securing an equaliser, but it was not to be, the Wolves surviving a monumental scare to draw level with Rockdale.
For Wilkshire, such a scare was unacceptable.
"We're fighting for the premiership and goal difference is important," Wilkshire said.
"We want to go on with it, even with the way we played, we always want to score more goals. We never want to sit back and say okay the job's done.
"We have one more game to go, we've got to go and beat Manly next week. It's as simple as that. It's out of our hands unfortunately, but we'll go and do what we do."
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Cameron Mee
Sports reporter at the Canberra Times
Sports reporter at the Canberra Times
