A-League: Wanderers to host Sydney FC in elimination final

The Wanderers host Sydney on Saturday night at CommBank Stadxium in a first-ever finals meeting between the arch-rivals.

The winner will advance to the second week of the finals series, but for the loser, it will be the end of the season.

The Wanderers have qualified for the finals for first time since 2017.

It’s perhaps why a lot has been made of their effort to place fourth and secure at least one finals match at home.

However, it hasn’t been lost on Redmayne and his Sydney teammates that Wanderers only finished three points ahead of the Sky Blues – who were often criticised during the regular season – and that both clubs won 11 matches during the campaign.

“The Wanderers have talked about how good their season has been but we were only three points behind and a lot of the media are saying we’ve had a really sub-par season,” ex-Western Sydney gloveman Redmayne said.

“It kind goes to show the mentality and the expectations of the two clubs.

“We’re held to out standards that we’ve set over the last six or seven years.

“We set the benchmark for the league for the standard of the clubs, and we’ve probably fallen a bit below that this season, but they’re only three points ahead of us.”

However, Redmayne said that whatever happened during the season – including the Wanderers’ 4-0 thrashing of the Sky Blues in March – “goes out the window” this weekend.

“It’s all on the line … and as a footballer you want to play in big games and big occasions, and this is exactly that,” he said.

A crowd of more than 25,000 is expected, 4000 of which will be Sky Blues supporters.

However, Sydney’s active supporter group, “The Cove”, won’t be at the natch in protest against alleged “broken promise” made by the Australian Professional Leagues in regards to the decision to sell the A-League grand final hosting rights to the NSW government.

“The game’s going to go ahead regardless, and we need to crack on with it as players,” Redmayne said.
“I more feel sorry for them (The Cove) because they’re going to miss a special occasion.?”

In good news for Sydney, Redmayne said that star winger Joe Lolley – who injured his hamstring in last week’s 2-0 win over Newcastle – had passed a fitness test on Friday.

“He’ll be involved,” the Socceroos keeper said.

Originally published as Sydney FC goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne suggests Sky Blues have higher standards than the Wanderers