'Frustrating': Wolves' late fightback not enough in defeat against Marconi

The final score at WIN Stadium on Sunday, May 26 was 2-1, with Stallions talisman Marko Jesic having a day to remember, scoring a brace.

Andre Takami scored late to make it an interesting end to the game, but it was too little, too late.

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As for the Wolves, the result does them no favours in the race for finals football with the team now real outsiders to catch the top six with under half of the National Premier League NSW Men's season to go.

Wolves defender Darcy Madden said he was pleased with the fightback from his team, but disappointed that they had let it get to that point.

"The fightback was good but it was frustrating it had to come to that," Madden said.

"I thought we started slow. We weren't really ourselves today. Obviously it's nice to finish with a goal, but the way we started was not us and we'll be looking to rectify that quickly.

"There's no excuses. It's a good day, the crowd is here at WIN Stadium which is good. So we're going to have to have a look at ourselves before we can really nail that one."

The Wolves had been tinkering with a new formation in recent league games, as well as the Australia Cup defeat midweek against Rockdale.

Against Marconi, the new system lasted about 40 minutes, with the Stallions forcing the Wolves back to more familiar territory.

"We've been trying it (the new formation) out," Madden continued.

"We haven't really been able to test it out as much as we would like. We've had a few red cards the last few weeks which has changed the personnel here and there.

"But it (the formation change) was all sort of just to maybe manage against this team in particular. Perhaps the two up front would work better just for today.

"Again, we'll have a look at that before I can really say with certainty."

Here's how the game unfolded...

So often has the Stallions skipper Jesic haunted the Wolves in recent times and it was more of the same this time round.

Wolves goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic made the original save, but could do nothing about Jesic following up to score the tap in to make it 1-0 to Marconi after five minutes.

Going behind seemed to wake the Wolves up immediately, with Sebastian Hernandez and Yagoub Mustafa both going close inside 10 minutes.

Janjetovic was called into action on the stroke of the half hour when Daniel Bouman escaped the offside trap and was in behind, but could not beat the Wolves' last line.

In fact Janjetovic was keeping his team from going further behind, amplified by a stunning tip over the bar from a Jesic header that looked bound for the back of the net.

There was nothing Janjetovic could do just moments after his brilliant save as Jesic had his second.

It was great play from winger Domenic Costanzo, whose work enabled Jesic to have a tap in and make it 2-0 to Marconi.

It was simply astonishing he didn't have a first half hat-trick, if not for the brilliant work of Janjetovic once again to deny him.

The Wolves were at sixes and sevens, which forced Carney to make a chance five minutes before half time with Jake Trew coming on to replace Alex Masciovecchio. This substitution also promoted the aforementioned formation change.

The Wolves' final chance of the half fell to captain Lachlan Scott, who smashed the crossbar. The score remained 2-0 however.

Chances were hard to come by early in the second 45. Wolves left back Dylan Ryan had an audacious attempt with the volley in the 63^rd minute that went over the bar from a set piece situation.

Takumi Ofuka was next to shoot, with his free kick from just outside the 18 yard box going straight into the grateful hands of Marconi goalkeeper James Hilton as the clock began to tick down.

Second half substitute Andre Takami didn't take long to make an impact, scoring via a header to make for an interesting final few moments.

There were nervy moments for the visitors, but Marconi held on in the end however.

The Wolves will be back at home - at Albert Butler Memorial Park - in its next fixture against Sydney United on Sunday, June 2.

Kickoff is 3pm.