Five brilliantly taken goals in the second-half by exciting young striker Tara Andrews has guided the Newcastle Jets to a comfortable 7-1 victory over the luckless Adelaide United at Wanderers Oval on Saturday afternoon.
Five brilliantly taken goals in the second-half by exciting young striker Tara Andrews has guided the Newcastle Jets to a comfortable 7-1 victory over the luckless Adelaide United at Wanderers Oval on Saturday afternoon.
The 16-year-old displayed some expert finishing during her standout performance, which was complimented by a brace from impressive playmaker Melissa Feuerriegel.
Adelaide made a brief comeback late in the first half when midfielder Rachael Quigley equalised in the 34th minute, but their hopes were dashed almost immediately after the half-time interval, with the home side netting four times in the opening quarter of an hour of the second stanza.
Jets coach Wayne O’Sullivan tinkered with his usual line-up, giving Carlie Ikonomou a start at right-back and pushing Hannah Brewer into the midfield, and the move clearly paid dividends as his charges looked by far the hungrier of the two sides during the contest.
Meanwhile, the visitors were searching for their first competition points of the Westfield W-League season, and almost got off to the perfect start in the 7th minute when Ashleigh Gunning hit a stinging drive from distance, only to be denied by a superb fingertip save by Allison Lipsher.
Midway through the half, though, and Feuerrigel would open the scoring for the home side.
The move was initiated by Brewer, who would slalom through the Adelaide midfield before playing a neat ball to Nicole Cross. The lanky midfielder, in turn, hit a through ball into the path of Feuerrigel, who made no mistake when presented with the opportunity.
The lead was short-lived, however, with Quigley latching onto a loose ball for the Reds just moments later. Her left-footed strike took a wicked deflection past Lipsher and nestled in the back of the net to restore parity.
O-Sullivan-s half-time address to his players obviously worked a treat as the Jets went on a second half rampage to complete the demolition of the South Australians.
It took Andrews less than sixty seconds after the break to score her first and hand the Jets the advantage once more. The youngster kept her cool amid a goalmouth scramble to open the floodgates for the home side.
Five minutes later and Feuerriegel would have her second, finishing with aplomb at the far post after some nice lead-up work down the left-fank by Cross.
A minute later and Andrews would score one of the goals of the Westfield W-League season to all but seal the three points for the Jets.
After winning the ball in a strong 50-50 challenge, the 16-year-old saw Harvey inches off her line before launching a delightful chip over the Adelaide goalkeeper-s head and into the back of the net from all of 35-yards.
The Australian Under-16-s striker wasn-t close to finished yet though, and in the 57th minute she sealed her hattrick, getting on the end of another wicked ball in from the left by the tireless Cross.
Things only got worse for Adelaide in the 65th minute when Ruth Blackburn was shown her second yellow card by referee Kirralee Gardener to be given her marching orders.
The dismissal was like a red rag to a bull for Andrews, who utilised the open spaces through the middle of the pitch to score two more goals on the counter-attack in the final five minutes of the match to round out the 7-1 thrashing.
The huge victory was Newcastle-s third win of the Westfield W-League 2010/11 season and keeps them in touch with the competition’s top four sides on the ladder. The Reds, meanwhile, travel back to Adelaide still with no points to show for their efforts in this campaign.
Newcastle Jets 7 (Feuerriegel 23’/51′, Andrews 46’/52’/57’/85’/90+2′)
Adelaide United 1 (Quigley 34′)
