Wolves cough up another lead, this time against defending premiers APIA

And for the majority, they were up for the fight. But in the end, APIA came away from WIN Stadium with a 2-1 win, despite the Wolves taking the lead in the first half through Chris McStay.

The Wolves were looking to get back to winning ways after back-to-back losses against Western Sydney and Sydney Olympic.

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The Wolves latest defeat to APIA was similar to that of the Olympic defeat, where they coughed up a lead from a winning position.

APIA in fact had an opening chance in the half that they really should have done better from. Jordan Segretto - who has had a stellar start to the season - whipped a cross into Ben Gibson who shot straight at Vedran Janjetovic.

And they would have been ruing that missed chance just moments later, when Wolves winger Yagoub Mustafa got in behind the defence and put the ball across the face of goal, where McStay finished with aplomb to make it 1-0.

Segreto looked to hit back via a set piece soon after, but Janjetovic was up to the task, as he has been all season.

Off-season signings Mustafa was a frightening prospect for APIA defenders in the first half. He provided the assist for the opening goal to McStay, whilst also having chances of his own.

One shot in particular forced the intervention from APIA goalkeeper Anthony Bouzanis after Mustafa cleared his defender with raw pace in the box.

He was crucial as the Wolves went into the half-time break 1-0 up.

Gibson had an early shot which stung the palms of Janjetovic as soon as the second period of the game got underway, further underlying the threat the defending premiers posed.

Down the other end midway through the second half, APIA goalkeeper Bouzanis pulled off what surely will be in the running for save of the season as the Wolves searched for a second goal.

Jake Trew played the ball off to captain Lachlan Scott, who squared it to Takumi Ofuka who struck it towards goal from point blank range, but Bouzanis got a finger to it and tipped the ball around the post.

But despite having the majority of chances, the premiers showed their quality and scored in the 75^th minute thanks to a goal from Jack Armson.

Then, just moments later, the Wolves hearts were sunk after Sean Symons made it 2-1 with just 10 minutes remaining and that is now it stayed.

Wolves goalkeeper Janjetovic said he couldn't work out how the team lost that game.

"I'm not too sure, we've got to look back at it as a collective unit," Janjetovic said.

"Not sure where it broke down. It could be just a bit of luck for their first one. It bobbled out and went to one of theirs. Same thing for the second. But even so we should be doing better clearing our lines."

He said the disparity between the performance of the first half to the one of the second would also be something they would have to improve on.

"Again I'm not too sure. The game plan was the same, so I'm not sure what changed. The first half was good and we needed a repeat of it, but it just wasn't there for some reason."

The loss sees the Wolves linger mid table in eighth spot.

The Wolves will travel to Rockdale Sports Centre when they take on St George FC on Saturday, April 13.