Victors: Japanese star Shinji Ono at Campbelltown on Saturday night. Picture: Simon Bennett
WESTERN Sydney Wanderers well and truly threw down the gauntlet to other codes in the battle to win people's hearts and minds on Saturday at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.
In a great advertisement for soccer and for the A-League, a crowd of more than 10,500 created an electric atmosphere for the Community Round clash between Wanderers and Newcastle Jets.
Wanderers' 2-1 victory gave them the honour of being the first A-League team to win five consecutive games this season.
This Saturday they travel to Melbourne to take on third placed Victory at 7.45pm.
Wanderers opened the scoring through Youssouf Hersi in first-half injury time.
The Red and Black Bloc Wanderers fans' enthusiasm literally spilled over when a section of supporters crashed through and collapsed fencing following celebrations after the goal.
Mark Bridge doubled the lead in the 84th minute before Ruben Zadkovich scored an injury time consolation goal for Newcastle.
The spectacle was a first for many local sport fans and one of those was John Colvin, who described the game's atmosphere on Saturday night as being a very memorable occasion with a "positive experience" for him at his first A-League encounter.
"It was a warm night with, a colourful vocal support that was well behaved," Colvin said.
"I was delighted and surprised at the Red and Black Bloc's enthusiasm and support which was very parochial but without any malice towards the other team or fans.
"It was a good clean game of football, technically displayed by both teams and Wanderers justifying a worthy victory with a Newcastle team always dangerous on the break."