Rudderless Western Sydney Wanderers are closing in on their first wooden spoon after being condemned to a 2-0 derby defeat at the hands of Sydney FC.
Goals from Al Hassan Toure and Apostolos Stamatelopoulos helped the Sky Blues move up to third on the A-League Men ladder with victory at CommBank Stadium on Saturday.
The result gives Sydney their first win under Patrick Kisnorbo and sends the Wanderers ever closer towards a dreaded bottom-placed finish.
The Wanderers are three points adrift of Perth Glory in last spot and, barring a late-season revival, are heading towards a spoon and the lowest point in their history.
Widely considered one of the success stories of the A-League era, the Wanderers' decline into irrelevance was encapsulated by a crowd of just 16,135 at CommBank Stadium in what represents the lowest derby turnout in four years.
The Wanderers parted ways with Alen Stajcic midway through January, but have won just two games since under interim head coach Gary van Egmond.
Ufuk Talay will take charge next season after being released by Sydney last month, but faces a major off-season overhaul of players and staff to have any hope of resuscitating a leaderless club and a supporter base that is only trending downwards.
"It's a team that's not winning and it's a pretty easy solution," van Egmond said.
"I think you've got to earn the right to ensure that you have support and you have fans.
"That's a big thing that this club has to do to ensure for the oncoming season and seasons after that as well."
Sydney took the lead in the 19th minute when Wataru Kamijo played in Toure who rifled past Lawrence Thomas for his fifth goal of the season.
Stamatelopoulos nearly doubled Sydney's lead when he rounded Thomas, only for Anthony Pantazopoulos to clear off the line.
Sydney led 1-0 at halftime and survived a scare when Bozhidar Kraev looked to have equaliser on the hour mark.
Kraev tucked in a Brandon Borrello rebound, but replays showed the Bulgarian used his hand and the goal was overturned on VAR check.
Stamatelopoulos coolly finished past Thomas with a well-taken finish in the 83rd minute to wrap up victory.
"The application that they showed tonight under difficult circumstances was great to see," Kisnorbo said.
"We got rewarded for persistence and I was happy with that."
