Del Piero on target for Sydney FC in A-League

Dunya News

Gallas took the field as a 63rd minute substitute for Steve Pantelidis.

SYDNEY (AP) - Alessandro Del Piero scored his third goal in six games as Sydney FC beat Melbourne Heart 2-0 in the A-League, increasing pressure on Heart coach John Aloisi whose team remains winless and in last place.

Heart fans sang "Aloisi out" and "You re getting sacked in the morning," loudly booing their team at halftime and fulltime, as the home loss left the Melbourne side with two points from six matches.

"I understand the performance wasn t acceptable from our club," Aloisi said. "We don t want to be in this position, we don t want to be losing games, or putting in positions like that. I accept that I m the one the buck stops with."

Del Piero scored from the penalty spot in the 27th minute after Joel Chianese was fouled in the area by Rob Wielaert, then Chianese added the second moments before halftime.

Sydney coach Frank Farina, who was under similar pressure when his team struggled near the foot of the league last season, offered his support to former Australia striker Aloisi.

"Unfortunately as a football coach when the team loses it seems to be your fault," he said. "When they win it s great play or great players."

Meanwhile, Western Sydney Wanderers beat Melbourne Victory 1-0 for their fourth straight win, rising to the top of the league, two points ahead of Brisbane.

Mark Bridge scored the winning goal in the 82nd minute, finding space at the far post to stab home a cross from Labinot Haliti.

"All round it was a very good performance against a very good team," Wanderers coach Tony Popovic said. It was another good result in difficult conditions. The patches were a bit longer in regard to our good play."

Brisbane had the chance to move past Western Sydney into first place but was beaten 2-1 by Newcastle. Luke Brattan gave Brisbane the lead after 38 minutes but Newcastle rallied with a second half double to Adam Taggart.

Adelaide United ended a three-match losing streak by grabbing a 1-1 draw with Perth, spoiling the Perth debut of former Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham defender William Gallas.

Osama Malik gave Adelaide the lead in the 55th minute, getting behind the defense to head the ball home after Tarek Elrich had headed on a corner.

Gallas took the field as a 63rd minute substitute for Steve Pantelidis and within eight minutes Perth equalized through Chris Harold, also from a corner.