Shayon Harrison netted his first goal since arriving at Melbourne City, helping City secure a shock 2-0 win away from home over Sydney FC on Sunday at Leichardt Oval.
Since arriving from Tottenham Hotspur in the January transfer window, the 21-year-old has made five starts for Warren Joyce’s side, with his most productive appearance yet coming against the Sky Blues.
In a match of few chances, Harrison neatly side-footed a second-half finish past Andrew Redmayne with his left following an incisive pass from Kearyn Baccus to give City a surprise lead away from home.
Harrison was unlucky not to double his tally when his acrobatic overhead found the net via a deflection off former City midfielder Paulo Retre, with replays confirming his effort was going wide and was credited as an own goal against Retre.
Having helped City to its first win in six matches, Harrison paid tribute to his teammates’ work ethic.
“It was a big result. It was important today we came here and got the three points based on the previous weeks. I thought the lads were excellent today. Our work rate was magnificent.”
In the same match, City’s Rostyn Griffiths put on a brilliant display for the visitors in what was his 150thappearance in the A-League.
Having only appeared intermittently in City’s starting 11 this season, Griffiths’ performance was typified by his goal-saving intervention to cut out former City midfielder Anthony Caceres’ run in on goal in the 13th minute.
Griffiths, 31, returned to the A-League at the start of the season and has featured in 18 matches this season. Having played with Perth Glory on two different occasions (2016-17 and 2013-2015), Griffiths has also featured for Central Coast Mariners, North Queensland Fury and Adelaide United during his A-League career.
From ball boy to first team player, Western Sydney Wandereres welcomed academy product Daniel Wilmering into the A-League on Sunday as he made his debut in the Wanderers’ 3-1 loss away at Wellington Phoenix.
The 18-year-old was a fan and member of the club since its inception in 2012 and was a ball boy for the first two seasons when he was just 14 years old.
Since then, Wilmering has featured in the Wanderers’ academy set up and finally made his A-League debut as a late substitute for Raul Llorente.
Zach Duncan also made his A-League debut in the A-League, with the teenager coming on as a second half substitute for Brisbane Roar in their 2-1 loss against Melbourne Victory.
Duncan, 18, has featured previously in 10 matches for the Roar, however, those matches were played at youth level.
Duncan shared his debut alongside another Roar debutant, striker Eli Babalj, who made a return to the A-League for the first time since departing Adelaide United in 2016/17.
In between, Babalj had featured for Czech side Mladá Boleslav and Indian Super League team Atletico De Kolkata, having also featured for Melbourne Heart in its first two seasons, before a short return during the 2012/13 season.
Meanwhile, in the Central Coast Mariners’ dramatic F3 Derby win over Newcastle Jets, the Mariners’ Turkish midfielder Jem Karacan netted his first goal this A-League campaign.
The former Premier League midfielder, who signed for the Gosford-based club in January, latched onto a deflected cross from Matt Millar to sweep home the Mariners’ second goal on their way to a 3-0 lead.
Millar meanwhile kept pace with James Troisi in assists – with both players setting up their eighth assist for teammates this campaign. Millar moved to eight assists with a fine through-ball to Jordan Murray for the opener, while Troisi executed a lovely chip for Kosta Barabarouses to score Victory’s goal from an acute angle on Saturday night at Marvel Stadium.
Barbarouses’ first goal was a personal record-tying 12th; the highest number of goals the Kiwi international has scored in a single season in the A-League.
Having achieved that milestone during the 2011/12 season with Brisbane Roar, Barbarouses went one better, scoring a second goal to take his tally to a best-ever 13.
Barbarouses is two goals shy of A-League golden boot leader Roy Krishna, who netted his 15thgoal of the campaign in Phoenix’s 3-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers to go outright top of the goal scoring charts.
