Western Sydney Wanderers captain Robert Cornthwaite says honest individual assessments sparked the return of the team’s trademark tenacity in the 2-1 home win over Melbourne City on Monday.
Oriol Riera and Mark Bridge both struck in the space of two first-half minutes to overturn an early deficit and provide the perfect response to last weekend’s 4-0 loss in Newcastle.
Vedran Janjetovic preserved the advantage with a vital penalty save from Ross McCormack, before a dogged rearguard secured Josep Gombau’s second win in charge.
“A lot of self-reflection over the last couple of days for the team,” Cornthwaite told Fox Sports of the fallout from last weekend’s loss.
“A lot of looking in the mirror and asking ourselves, ‘are we doing everything we can?’
“I think tonight the boys really rolled their sleeves up and put in a true Wanderers performance that has been missing of late.
“We could have crumbled. It was up to me and Thwaitey [Michael Thwaite] at the back to keep heads up, really rally the boys, and I think the response was fantastic.”
Now two points off the top six and with a game in hand, Cornthwaite believes Wanderers’ win can set the platform for a turnaround.
“The most important thing is it takes a bit of pressure off the boys,” he said.
“We’re not going to shy away from that, things haven’t been good, but hopefully that takes a bit of pressure off and gives us confidence.”
