Video has emerged of Sydney FC fans burning a jersey of former club icon Milos Ninkovic ahead of the derby against the Western Sydney Wanderers at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
The Cove is Sydney FC’s active supporter group, who routinely march from their home pub in Moore Park to Allianz Stadium before big games.
In this case, the march was halted for for the jersey of Ninkovic, once their finest player, to be burned.
READ MORE: The unique sport that transcends gender lines
READ MORE: Samoa shock England to reach World Cup final
READ MORE: Wallabies hit rock bottom in historic loss to Italy
The Serbian superstar was beloved in Sky Blue for nearly a decade, before he not only left the club in acrimonious circumstances in the off-season, but committed the cardinal sin of joining their arch-rivals.
Throughout the match he was booed with every touch of the ball, and cheered whenever he appealed for a foul that wasn’t given.
Jeers turned to cheers in the 63rd minute when he fluffed a chance to break the deadlock in a one-on-one with Socceroos goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.
Ninkovic had the final laugh however after he made the pass that led to the Wanderers scoring the winning goal in their 1-0 win in the first Sydney derby since his defection.
Sulejman Krpic put the perfect through ball for Ninkovic, who took too long over the ball and put it straight into Redmayne’s chest.
But less than 10 minutes later he calmly slotted the ball through to Kusini Yengi, who made no mistake.
The Wanderers then had to withstand about 25 minutes of sustained Sydney FC pressure before the final whistle.
Wanderers coach Marko Rudan said the jeers and animosity from the Sydney fans are what make a derby.
“Derbies are the best – it’s simple as that. This is the original, this is the best, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“You look around the world … we all grew up on that. And it’s important that we teach that to the next generation. Games like (that) epitomizes what can be done if we understand and put the game first.”
Sky Blues coach Steve Corica agreed with Rudan’s assessment.
“It was a tight game, like we expected – it was physical, it was what the derbies should be all about,” he said.
“Just disappointed with the goal, and the result. Obviously, they took their one chance … and we had a couple of chances that we probably could have done better (with) towards the end.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
