A-League tipping Round 10: Fans robbed of ladder leading clash, acid test in Adelaide for Wanderers

Another catastrophic week for tipsters in Round 9 saw the Jets and Victory springing upsets and Auckland return to the top of the ladder.

Newcastle and Macarthur get Round 10 rolling on Friday night in the Hunter, Adelaide hosts the Wanderers in prime time Saturday night, before Victory and Phoenix meet on Sunday and Melbourne City tackle Perth Glory.

The postponed top of the table clash between Sydney and Auckland means it is a light weekend, until the mid-week New Year football kicks into gear next Wednesday.

Good luck with your tips for the abridged round and be sure to enter them in the sheet below to have a say in the roar of the crowd.

Stuart Thomas

Newcastle, Adelaide, City, Victory

Newcastle are starting to hum along and did the business against Sydney last weekend. Macarthur are tough to tackle, yet the home field might get the Jets home. Adelaide will have a big crowd out to get them over the line by a single goal on Saturday night.

Perth need to avoid returning to mediocrity, but will struggle to do so against a bruised City side coming off a Derby loss. Victory finally made a statement last week and will need another against a Wellington side that smashed the Mariners with ease. Melbourne in a high scoring affair.

Andrew Prentice

Newcastle, Adelaide, City, Victory

Christmas chaos comes to the A League. The Sydney-Auckland game has been deferred and there’s no truth to the rumour Ufuk Talay held a monster truck rally on Leichhardt Oval to give Joe Lolley more time to recover from his dodgy hammy. Hopefully no one has had dodgy hammy (or other pork products for the festive season.

I’m sucked in by Newcastle’s form enough to tip them against Macarthur. I’ve got Admiral Ackbar yelling “It’s a trap!” in my mind but I’m going the home team because they won’t have as far to roll out of bed after Christmas feasting. The young Jets are starting to fire again too and Macarthur are still parlous in front of goal.

Neither the Reds or the Wanderers are in peak scoring form either. One in four is Western Sydney’s miserable monthly return so at least Adelaide are tracking slightly better. Craig Goodwin split the difference against Perth last week but the Reds will need firepower from other sources to ensure a win at home. Time for the forwards to step up.

City were sunk by a late late derby goal last week and then looked unimpressive against Macarthur midweek. It’s rare the champions put three middling performances together in a row. Ever since Perth confirmed their new coach they’ve reverted to type which is curious but possibly quite “Perthy”.  Max Caputo is overdue after opening the season in a blaze of scoring glory.

Just when everyone had the knives out for Arthur Diles and were writing Victory obituaries, the dark blue side of Melbourne beat their two fiercist rivals in successive weeks. Of course, given this is the A League, that means they’ll get belted by Wellington.

But I’m stubbornly clinging to logic and feel like Niko Vergos is itching to continue his recent scoring form. The Phoenix’ form is so all over the shop that this week seems like a good one for them to drop their bundle again. That must be the over-consumption of turkey and Mum’s trifle talking. 

Texi Smith

Newcastle, Adelaide, City, Victory

Newcastle Jets have another opportunity to continue their top six surge with a Boxing Day belter against Macarthur FC at McDonald Jones Stadium. Perhaps a few more will be joining the crowd after the Jets only attracted five thousand against the top side last weekend, a game that they won comfortably in the end to the delight of their hardcore fans.

Tonight, it’s all about who works the hardest, and with the Bulls battening down the hatches to try and ride out the storm, the home team get the breakthrough on the hour through Eli Adams and make sure of the points when Clayton Taylor rifles home from the edge of the area. The Mark Milligan era is here.

The one-game-per-day drip-feeding of festive fixtures continues as Adelaide United host Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday evening. What a match-up this throws us, Wanderers floundering now down at the bottom of the ladder, Adelaide having arrested their own alarming slide with a tidy win in Perth.

Lawrence Thomas of Western Sydney Wanderers. (Photo by Texi Smith)

The Wanderers don’t win away, despite their undoubted talent and star-studded line-up, but they threaten this evening only to throw it all away in the second half, Dylan Pierias in mischievous form against one of his old clubs. Luka Jovanovic with the winner late in the second half and there is nothing left in the tank for Western Sydney to wrestle anything out of the game.

Perth Glory and Adam Griffiths’ dream run is over before it even started. Two home defeats in quick succession and Glory are right back where they started. Sunday night at AAMI Park sees Melbourne City dominate, and the goals that they failed to score in last week’s derby defeat come back in a flood of goalmouth action.

Max Caputo has two before half time, Andrew Nabbout adds another soon after and it’s a question of how many the home team can score. In the end, City make key changes late in the game and leave the door open for a consolation goal in injury time.

Aziz Behich of Melbourne City.(Photo by Texi Smith).

Monday night football, once the graveyard shift for the English Premier League when you’d get two of the struggling teams playing each other in front of a live TV audience. Two wins has propelled Melbourne Victory up and away from the basement, while Wellington Phoenix have resurrected their season with a gritty win against the Mariners.

This is no classic. Victory pile on the pressure but are susceptible to the counter-attack; with the game goalless heading into the final quarter of the game, with Carlo Armiento getting closer with his piledriving shots, Juan Mata prises open the Phoenix defence and Jordi Valadon strikes to give Victory a third win on the bounce.