A spirited Newcastle Jets have defeated the Perth Glory 2 -0 at EnergyAustralia Stadium tonight. In a dominant display, the Newcastle Jets created plenty of chances but had to wait until the dying minutes to seal the match.
A spirited Newcastle Jets have defeated the Perth Glory 2 -0 at EnergyAustralia Stadium tonight. In a dominant display, the Newcastle Jets created plenty of chances but had to wait until the dying minutes to seal the match.
The Newcastle Jets took the lead in the 10th minute with a spectacular goal from Michael Bridges. Good build up play between Ruben Zadkovich and Jeremy Brockie resulted in a corner to the home side. Kasey Wehrman crossed the ball from the corner spot which found an unmarked Michael Bridges who volleyed the ball from 12 yards out and into the top left hand corner of the goal.
The goal ignited the Jets and in the 13th minute they almost had a second when they received another corner. A goal line scramble saw three Perth players desperately lunge at the ball which had been directed toward goal by Topor-Stanley. A beaten Tando Velaphi could only watch as the ball was cleared off his line by his defenders.
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 seemed to fumble but saved at the second attempt.
In the 24th minute, the Jets received their fourth corner of the night which was met by a rising Topor-Stanley who headed towards goal only to see his effort saved by an outstretched Velaphi.
In the 28th minute, Kasey Wehrman stole the ball in midfield and linked up with Jeremy Brockie who released Zhang Shuo on the left. His left footed shot beat Velaphi and ran across the face of the goal but went agonisingly wide.
In the 33rd minute, Velaphi-s goal was under siege again when Ruben Zadkovich latched on to a loose ball in midfield, his shot almost catching the Perth goalkeeper off guard.
In the 41st minute, Newcastle was forced to make a change as an injured Tarek Elrich limped off and Ali Abbas entered the arena. The change temporarily disrupted the Jets momentum and against the run of play, the Perth Glory almost caught Newcastle on the counter attack. Adriano Pellegrino made a run down the left before linking with Sterjovski, who then passed to an unmarked Fowler. Fortunately for the Jets, his shot was off target and the Jets went in to break with a one goal to nil advantage.
The second half was a much more even affair but the Jets were not without their chances. In the 51st minute, Ruben Zadkovich picked up the ball in the Jets half and made a surging run riding a number of physical challenges. He then linked up with Jeremy Brockie who smartly laid the ball back to Zadkovich. The resulting shot beat Velaphi before crashing into the cross bar.
As Perth stepped up the attack, Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy did well to deny the hardworking Steven McGarry in the 69th minute, With 12 minutes remaining, Perth had their best opportunity as Sterjovski did well to feed the ball in for Naum Sekulovski in the area but the defender scuffed his shot.
The Newcastle Jets killed off the match in the 89th minute when Ali Abbas was released down the right hand side. After an initial stumble, Abbas regained his feet and played the ball square to an energetic Labinot Haliti who slipped past Todd before beating Velaphi to give the Newcastle Jets a 2 goal cushion.
Of the win, a satisfied Ljubo Milicevic stated after the match “we took our chances tonight and in previous games we didn-t. But every game we have played well and we just had to sick in there and it is great to get a home win”.
A jubilant Ruben Zadkovich stated “I am absolutely stoked for all the boys, the staff and the fans. It has been a long time coming, we probably should have won three or four games this year but it feels good to finally get one on the board”.
Newcastle Jets captain and goal scorer Michael Bridges stated “everyone of us to a man, with what-s been going on off the field, knew we had to perform on the field and we have done that, we just needed a bit of luck and thankfully tonight somebody was looking down on us. To get the three points for the area in front of the fans, and the boys to keep a clean sheet we know we have done a good job”.
The Newcastle Jets will now look to Wednesday when they will travel to Queensland to play the Gold Coast. In anticipation of this next match, Milicevic stated “we don-t fear anyone, we haven-t from the start of the season and we will continue to play the way we play and hopefully we will get more results like the one tonight”.
The result is Newcastle’s first win of the season, and sees the club leap into seventh spot on the Hyundai A-League table as Perth drop to third on goal difference behind Central Coast.
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 89-
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
