Canberra United have defeated rivals Sydney FC by two goals to one in a dominant performance over the Sky Blues at Leichhardt Oval in Round 16.
United wasted no time in putting the Sydney defence under pressure. Sasha Grove charged down the wing to cross the ball in towards Michelle Heyman, who laid the ball off to Hayley Taylor-Young with the wing back seeing her shot blocked.
The attacking dominance continued for United as Emma Robers sent in a dangerous high ball from out wide, with American Emma Hawkins rising highest to meet the ball, nodding just wide of the post.
Grove continued to be a threat, forcing the Sydney defence and goalkeeper Heather Hinz into deflecting the ball out for a corner on multiple occasions.
The early dominance paid off as Bethany Gordon finished off a brilliant team move to open the scoring. A brilliant one-two passing move between Grove and Heyman, saw the young fullback square the ball to the back post, with Gordon unmarked and able to smash the ball home for the opener.
Despite Sydney having very little to speak of in terms of their attack, the home side found an equaliser just before the break as a looping ball in from Mackenzie Hawkesby was nodded home by Madison Ayson.
United had a flurry of late chances to close out the half as the attacking duo of Hawkins and Heyman both saw their efforts denied by Hinz in the Sydney goal.
It was a similar start in the second half, as United immediately put the Sydney backline under pressure. Hawkins did well to create multiple opportunities early but was unlucky not to convert.
Attacking chances weren’t as prominent in the second half for United, but the team in Green was still firmly in control of the match as Hawkins and Heyman toiled away up top to find the goal to put United back in front.
Just past the hour mark and Sydney went down to ten as Kirst Fenton was shown a straight red card, after pulling Heyman’s jersey and denying the striker an obvious scoring opportunity.
With only a handful of minutes left on the clock, United were throwing everything at Sydney in an attempt to get back in the lead.
That opportunity was given to United as Mary Stanic-Floody came on to score a long range goal to give Canberra the lead for the second week in the row.
As the clock ticked over into injury time, Sienna Dale burst through the Sydney defence and was brought down in the box by Hinz. Stanic-Floody stepped up to take the spot kick but was denied a second goal.
The penalty miss mattered little for United, as the side held on for the win against a valiant Sydney FC to get a second win against the Sky Blues this season.
