Skipper Robbie Cornthwaite says a “no more excuses” ethos from the Western Sydney Wanderers is behind the club’s Hyundai A-League resurgence.
The Wanderers made it back-to-back wins with a clinical 2-0 triumph over Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
It’s the club’s first win outside of NSW since last February, while it also snapped a four-game losing streak at the home of the Roar.
After a tough start under new boss Josep Gombau – which included heavy defeats against Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets – the Wanderers have now turned the corner under Gombau.
“Over the last month or two we used the transition [under a new coach] as a bit of an excuse if I’m about it honest,” Cornthwaite told Fox Sports.
“We looked and spoke about self-awareness and self-reflection and you saw tonight the effort was fantastic.
“We had nine players missing. Two left the club, a few boys went overseas [with the Australian U23’s] and a couple of injuries. A few different boys got a chance tonight and everyone did well.”
The Wanderers did all their damage in the first half with striker Oriol Riera and the club’s most-capped player Mark Bridge scoring the goals.
After seemingly being written off in some circles given their early-season struggles, the Wanderers will end the Round in the top six ahead of a clash with Adelaide next week.
“It’s a close league and on any given weekend if anyone is off their game or not giving 100% it really does show,” Cornthwaite said.
“Credit to Josep. Tonight he had limited players and we changed our system a bit to 4-4-2.
“Santa [Brendon Santalab] and Ori [Riera] up front are going to cause any defences trouble and it worked well tonight with a couple of good goals.”
Gombau added: “In football, the most important is to be together and to learn and to fight for every single ball.
“Now we have this and at the very beginning we didn’t and I hope this keeps going for the rest of the season.
“I’m very happy, it’s a good result for us. We needed it and now we get ready for the next one in 5 days.”
