The Newcastle Jets were defeated 3-0 by Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Friday night.
The Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets were defeated 3-0 by Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Friday night.
The Jets had a golden opportunity to open the scoring in the sixth minute following a swift counter attack after a Perth corner.
The Jets broke quickly through Adam Taggart who put James Virgili in behind the Glory defence with a slide-rule pass.
With only the goalkeeper to beat, Virgili tried to open his body up and bend the ball inside the far post, but could only hit his shot straight at Glory shot-stopper Danny Vukovic.
The Jets then had to withstand a barrage of corners as the Glory applied pressure on their defence for a prolonged period.
After surviving the onslaught the Jets had another good chance to take the lead with Ruben Zadkovich picking out the run of Emile Heskey with a perfectly weighted ball over the top.
However, Vukovic was out of his box quickly and managed to dispossess Heskey with an important tackle as the striker attempted to dribble around him.
Not to be outdone, Jets goalkeeper Matt Nash came up with a pair of timely interventions to keep the scores locked at nil-all.
Nash made a diving save to stop a Michael Thwaite header following a Scott Jamieson free-kick, before being called into action again a shot time later to deny Shane Smeltz with a crucial one-on-one save.
Unfortunately for the Jets, Perth were able to take the lead on the stroke of half-time when Travis Dodd swooped on a turnover by debutant Mitchell Oxborrow on the edge of the Jets- penalty area.
Dodd picked up the loose ball, dribbled into the box and finished neatly into the bottom corner past Nash to give the Glory a 1-0 lead.
Less than five minutes after the interval Dodd found himself on the scoresheet again when the Jets were caught napping by a quickly taken corner from the Glory.
Dodd was left unmarked inside the six-yard box buried his unmarked header into the back of the net to double the Glory-s advantage.
The Jets had an opportunity to get one back on 60 minutes when Ryan Griffiths found Virgili in space on the right.
Vrigili cut the ball back to Taggart who was unmarked on the penalty spot, but he couldn-t get enough behind his shot to beat Vukovic.
Perth went ahead 3-0 in the 74th minute when Josh Mitchell was controversially adjudged to have brought down Shane Smeltz in the box.
The Kiwi international stepped up to the spot and cooly slotted the ball past Nash to put the result beyond doubt.
Newcastle Jets 0
Perth Glory 3 (Dodd 45-, 49-, Smeltz 74-)
Newcastle Jets starting XI: 2. Scott Neville, 3. Tiago Calvano, 4. Josh Mitchell, 5. Dominik Ritter, 8. Ruben Zadkovich (c), 9. Emile Heskey, 17. James Virgili, 22. Adam Taggart (15. Craig Goodwin 66-), 23. Ryan Griffiths, 24. Mitch Oxborrow (12. Josh Brillante 45-), 33. Matt Nash (gk).
Yellow cards: Oxborrow 41-, Goodwin 80-
Unused substitutes: 11. Connor Chapman, 30. Jack Duncan (gk).
Perth Glory starting XI: 1. Danny Vukovic (gk), 3. Bas van den Brink, 7. Jacob Burns (c), 8. Dean Heffernan (17. Chris Harold 71-), 9. Shane Smeltz (4. Billy Mehmet 83-), 10. Liam Miller (6. Nick Ward 89′), 13. Travis Dodd, 14. Steven McGarry, 19. Josh Risdon, 21. Scott Jamieson, 23. Michael Thwaite.
Yellow cards: Jamieson 85-
Unused substitutes: 30. Lewis Italiano (gk).
