Wagga City Wanderers produce best performance of the season to upset Yoogali 2-1 in NPL Two

The Wanderers enjoyed what was just their fourth win of the NPL Two season with a 2-1 victory over Yoogali SC at Gissing Oval.

The upset capped a stunning turnaround from Wagga City, who had lost their past two games by a combined scoreline of 16-2.

Wanderers coach Dave Leonard was proud of his team's response.

"The boys played super. Probably the best 90 minute performance we've played all year," Leonard said.

"It was really, really pleasing. Again, and I know we speak about it and it gets old, but it's just a little bit of reward for effort because the last couple of weeks have been really tough.

"They've trained so well, which is really pleasing from a coaching perspective because it can get a little bit rough."

Wanderers got off on the right foot, going ahead with an early goal before Joey Preece scored an equaliser early in the second half.

But the Wanderers continued to push ahead and snared the match-winner in about the 70^th minute.

It was a satisfying win for the Wanderers, after being on the wrong end of some heavy losses to Yoogali earlier in the season.

"There was a few incentives and (the opposition) was definitely one of them. We've created a nice little rivalry," Leonard said.

"Leading up to this game, there was huge motivation because it was a charity game for us, it was a charity weekend, where we supported one of our major sponsors in Wellways, which was really nice, to get around them and get a result.

"There was a few driving factors, obviously ourselves, not wanting to finish on the bottom. The boys were up for it. We trained solidly Tuesday and Thursday and almost had a full squad to choose from, which was probably the first time that Liam (Dedini) and I had the headache of dropping a couple of players to go to 23s, which is nice.

"Hopefully the boys can continue that now and finish off strongly."

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James Klein made a timely return for the Wanderers and he was outstanding at central defence. Ochieng was a standout in attack, proving dangerous throughout, while captain Rob Fry made some important saves and was sensational.

The Wanderers welcomed back some experience for the game and Leonard believes the mix between some wiser heads and the youth proved the right combination.

"This playing group is just so tight, and have to be, when you look at the last couple of week's results," he said.

"We set ourselves for a big third round and we let ourselves down the last couple of games and it would be easy just to drop your bundle but we had a couple of players come in...we got that really good mix of youth and experience and they work really well with each other.

"We owed them a couple, and to be able to knock them out of finals contention is a nice little bit of in-house glory for us."

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