Western Sydney booed off after third straight home A-League defeat

Western Sydney's disappointing A-League season reached a new low after the Wanderers were booed by their own fans in a 2-0 loss to a 10-man Melbourne City.

Lachlan Wales and Ritchie De Laet set up the New Year's Day win with goals within two minutes of each other in the first half at ANZ Stadium.

The Wanderers, who have now lost three on the trot at the Olympic site for the first time in club history, were given a chorus of disapproval from the 8,365 fans at both half-time and the final whistle.

Their famed Red and Black Bloc section was also empty after the main break.

And they missed an exquisite goalkeeping display from City's Eugene Galekovic, who produced a string of second-half saves to claim a league-high fourth clean sheet of the campaign.

The win lifts City back to fourth place on the A-League table - six points behind leaders Perth.

It was a lifeless opening 35 minutes from both sides until a moment of quick thinking from ex-Wanderers star Dario Vidosic lit up the contest.

The former Socceroos representative caught a Wanderers defence napping with a long throw-in from inside his own half to send Wales with a straight path to goal.

And the 21-year-old made no mistake with the finish, lifting his shot past an advancing Vedran Janjetovic to net his second goal in the tenth match of his career.

Spurred on by the breakthrough, the visitors doubled their advantage when Riley McGree turned Raul Llorente and then pulled it back for De Laet to fire low across his body.

Wanderers attacker Bruce Kamau had his team's best chance moments before the break but his curling effort was expertly tipped wide by Galekovic.

The two-goal half-time deficit was also enough for their active supporter bay, which has dwindled with the team's form, to empty their designated section for the second half.

Western Sydney were given a shot in the arm when Rostyn Griffiths was shown his second yellow card for chopping down Alex Baumjohann in the 56th minute.

However they were denied on several occasions by Galekovic, who saved two point-blank shots from Baumjohann and substitute Abraham Majok in the space of a minute.

And he topped it off by tipping away an Oriol Riera penalty moments later, leaving the Wanderers with just one win in their past six matches.