A late Adelaide United equaliser has denied Western Sydney Wanderers coach Josep Gombau an A-League win over his former club at Spotless Stadium.
Both goals in the 1-1 draw came from first-time A-League scorers, though it took one many more games than the other.
The Wanderers looked set for a third straight win until substitute Apostolos Stamatelopoulos scored from close range following a cut back from Ryan Strain.
It was a first goal in just his third appearance for the 18-year-old, who had only been on the field a few minutes.
Wanderers full-back Jack Clisby gave his side a 52nd-minute lead with a maiden A-League goal that came after six and a half seasons and 90 games.
Clisby finished off from close range at the far post after a perfect cross from Roly Bonevacia.
Adelaide pressed for a winner in the dying stages but had to settle for a point.
That lifted them into outright fourth and kept the Wanderers down in sixth.
A share of the spoils was a fair reflection of a game in which both sides had several chances.
Adelaide had the early opportunities, with Baba Diawara and Ryan Kitto both failing to capitalise.
The Wanderers then carved out some decent chances. Oriol Riera hit a post and Steven Lustica had a follow-up attempt cleared off the line by Jordan Elsey while Mark Bridge went close on a couple of occasions.
Gomabu made all three of his substitutions before the last 10 minutes but denied the changes had affected his team’s stability and that fatigue had forced his hand.
“If you want to find it’s my mistake then write this, but I don’t have this feeling,” said Gombau, who coached Adelaide from 2013-15 and took over at the Wanderers last November.
“I think honestly we deserved to win.
“In the first half we had three good chances to go into the changing room at halftime winning.”
Adelaide coach Marco Kurz had a different take on the game and was pleased with the way his changed side had performed with just one training session together beforehand.
“I think in the last 30 minutes we had more chances but when I saw the whole 90 minutes I think the draw, the result was correct for both sides,” he said.
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