SERBIAN striker Aleksandar Prijovic has scored twice and added an assist as Western United advanced to the A-League Men grand final with an extraordinary 4-1 win over Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park.<\/p>\n
United made the season decider in just their third season and ended Victory’s club-record 16-match unbeaten run with a 4-2 aggregate win after a pulsating second-leg match last Saturday.<\/p>\n
“There’s been a lot of people putting down the club and some things I understand, because we haven’t got a stadium and we’re still building our supporter base,” United coach John Aloisi said.<\/p>\n
“We’re on the journey but to get there so quickly for the club is huge because that helps the supporter base grow.”<\/p>\n
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, United twice hit the front as Prijovic capitalised on two wonderful crosses to score in each half.<\/p>\n
Prijovic set up the decisive third goal in the 78th minute, as his delightful layoff fell to Lachie Wales, whose shot deflected off a Victory player into the net for the go-ahead goal.<\/p>\n
The excellent Dylan Wenzel-Halls added the fourth goal in the ninth minute of added time.<\/p>\n
Prior to the final marker, Victory had a number of chances to level the tie and also had an unsuccessful penalty shout.<\/p>\n
Victory had 13 more shots and Western’s Jamie Young was by far the busier goalkeeper, but Melbourne were far less clinical in front of goal.<\/p>\n
Western scored with their first on-target attempt in the 18th minute, with Prijovic’s far post header rewarding a delightful cross from Connor Pain.<\/p>\n
Victory midfielder Jake Brimmer again put his side ahead on aggregate with a peach of a free-kick in the 37th minute, the fourth-straight game in which he has scored.<\/p>\n
Western briefly thought they were ahead again when Wenzel-Halls’ header hit the net just after halftime, only to be correctly ruled out for offside.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later they did hit the lead through Prijovic’s fine sliding finish from an excellent Wenzel-Halls cross.<\/p>\n
“As a whole team we performed very well today, very compact, terrific defence and we get rewarded in the front,” Prijovic said.<\/p>\n
“We did analyse the previous game and we saw there was a lot opportunities to play the first ball forward on crosses and today we scored a few on crosses and we punished them.”<\/p>\n
United now meet Melbourne City in the season decider this Saturday night.<\/p>\n
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