A valiant Perth Glory has gone down to the Newcastle Jets 2-0 in an entertaining Friday night clash at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
A valiant Perth Glory has gone down to the Newcastle Jets 2-0 in an entertaining Friday night clash at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
The Glory fell behind in the 10th minute thanks to a spectacular volley from Jets’ skipper Michael Bridges from a corner.
But Perth fought back and produced numerous attacks on goal during the second half, only to be caught on the counter with a minute remaining as Newcastle substitute Labinot Haliti doubled the advantage.
“We weren-t at the races in the first half but the second half was a lot better”, Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell said.
The result is Newcastle’s first win of the season, seeing the club leap into seventh on the Hyundai A-League table as Perth drop to third on goal difference behind Central Coast.
“We-ll go back to the drawing board, it-s Adelaide next week who are on top so we need to come out fighting”, Perth Glory ‘keeper Tando Velaphi said.
After a somewhat quiet opening, the Jets took the lead with virtually their first attack of the game as Ruben Zadkovich swung in a corner from the right. The ball eluded former Glory defender Nikolai Topor-Sranley’s head, but it fell for Jeremy Brockie to chest down to Bridges who curled it into the right corner via a deflection off Jacob Burns’ head.
In the 13th minute, the Glory were fortunate not to concede again from another Zadkovich corner, the ball bobbling around on the goal-line without going in before an alert Mile Sterjovski pushed it to safety.
Eight minutes later, the Glory showed how dangerous they can be as Sterjovski fed Robbie Fowler from the right, the former Liverpool man cutting inside but not able to get any power on his shot which Ben Kennedy saved.
The Jets stepped up the attack once again, but Velaphi produced a stunning diving save to deny Topor-Stanley’s header in the 25th minute while Andy Todd, starting for the first time this season, did well to push Zhang Shuo wide three minutes later, the Chinese striker sending his shot narrowly wide.
On the half hour, Burns’ low shot went wide down the other end, while nine-minutes later, Sterjovski once again fed Fowler from the right, the forward sending in a cross-cum-shot that just went the wrong side of the left upright.
The Glory’s best chance of the half came in the 43rd minute when defender Josh Mitchell combined brilliantly with Todd Howarth down the left, before Mitchell’s cross in to Fowler went just wide of the post.
Although Perth started the second period with a much more attacking game plan, opting for a 3-4-3 formation after Michael Baird came on to replace Adriano Pellegrino at the break, the visitors were lucky not to go further behind in the 51st minute when Zadkovich’s shot grazed the bar.
As Perth stepped up the attack, Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy did well to deny the hardworking Steven McGarry in the 69th minute, while the Glory’s best chance came with 12 minutes remaining as Sterjovski did well to feed the ball in for Naum Sekulovski in the area, only for the substitute defender to scuff his shot.
In the 82nd minute Baird fired narrowly wide while McGarry’s half-volley was saved a minute later.
But having not taken their chances, the Glory were exposed down the other end from a quick break as Ali Abbas’ pass allowed Haliti to skip past Todd and drag his left-footed shot past Tando Velaphi to double the lead.
Newcastle Jets: 2 (BRIDGES 10-, HALITI 89-)
Perth Glory: 0
Friday, 17 September 2010
EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
Crowd:6977
Referee: Ryan Shepheard
Assistant referees: Sarah Ho & Daniel Dewhurst
Fourth official: Kris Griffiths-Jones
Newcastle Jets line-up: 1.Ben KENNEDY (gk), 3.Adam D-APUZZO, 4.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, 5.Ljubo MILICEVIC, 6.Ben KANTAROVSKI, 7.Kasey WEHRMAN, 8.Michael BRIDGES (c) 10.Ruben ZADKOVICH, 11.Tarek ELRICH (19.Ali ABBAS 42-), 16.Jeremy BROCKIE (15.Sean ROONEY 72-), 9.Zhang SHUO (14.Labinot HALITI 78-)
Substitutes not used: 40.Matthew NASH (gk).
Yellow Cards: SHOU 45 +2-, ZADKOVICH 58- HALITI 90-
Red Cards: Nil
Perth Glory line-up: 1.Tando VELAPHI, 2.Josh MITCHELL (19.Naum SEKULOVSKI 59-), 3.Jamie COYNE, 4.Andy TODD, 5.Jamie HARNWELL, 7.Jacob BURNS (C), 9.Robbie FOWLER (11.Branko JELIC 61-), 14.Steven McGARRY, 16.Adriano PELLEGRINO (10.Michael BAIRD 46-), 17.Todd HOWARTH, 21.Mile STERJOVSKI
Substitutes not used: 20.Aleks VRTESKI (gk)
Yellow Cards: BURNS 51-
Red Cards: Nil
