Wollongong Wolves out to avenge NWS Spirit loss when they face Sydney FC

David Carney's men were forced to do a bit of soul searching in the wake of their heartbreaking 5-4 loss to NWS Spirit last Saturday.

Goals from Jake Trew, Chris McStay, Lachlan Scott and Takumi Ofuka meant the side led 4-2 heading into injury time, before implosion began.

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Spirit then scored three goals in the next five minutes to win the game 5-4 as they snatched the three points right under the Wolves nose.

The result left the Wolves lingering in 10^th position on the ladder.

In round 10, the side will travel to Valentine Sports Park to take on Sydney FC on Good Friday. It will be a tough ask for Carney's men, with the Sky Blues Academy boys on an impressive run of form.

After losing three of their first four matches to start the season, Sydney are now on a five match unbeaten run, with the side winning four of those contests meaning they are now fifth on the table.

Sydney feature a number of potential A-League Men's superstars of the future, including Adrian Segecic, Jaiden Kucharski and Aaron Gurd - all of whom have featured for Steve Corica's first team in the 2022/23 professional season.

Captain Scott, who made his return from injury against NWS Spirit, said that whilst it was a tough loss to take against NWS Spirit, the team had moved on and were looking on getting a positive result away from home against Sydney.

"Obviously last week was something that I don't think any of us have really seen before in football and it's a tough one to take," Scott told the Mercury.

"But for the majority of the game I think we were actually the better team. So I guess we've just got to focus on those last 10 minutes or so.

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"But in training we've moved on and we're working hard and just trying to focus on this week and trying to forget about it now."

The main positive out of the NWS Spirit match was the return of their captain who had been out of action due to his hamstring injury he suffered in round three against Marconi.

Scott - who used to call Sydney the enemy when he was with the Wanderers in the A-League - said he was looking to put his injury troubles behind him.

"It was a frustrating period watching from the sidelines," he said.

"I'm just happy to get back out there and get the boys a couple of wins starting with Sydney on Friday."

Scott said he backed his side to compete against Sydney despite the Sky Blues current run of form.

"The youth teams in the competition [Sydney, WSW, CCM and Bulls] all play a similar way which is the right way. They all try and play good football and they've got kids that can do it and move the ball quick," he said.

"We've just got to be up for the game and hopefully we can use our strengths like physicality and experience against them and hopefully we're well prepared."

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