Goals from Dimitri Petratos, his brother Kosta, Devante Clut and Chinese trialist Zhengyu Zhu helped Newcastle Jets to a 4-0 friendly win over Maitland FC on Wednesday.
D. Petratos scored the game’s opener in the 21st minute when he put the finishing touch on a superb team goal that started right at the back with defender Daniel Georgievski.
Earlier D. Petratos had gone within a whisker of opening the scoring as he slammed the crossbar with a cracking free kick.
Andrew Nabbout should have doubled the Jets’ advantage 37 minutes in, however his shot was well saved by Magpies custodian Luke Jennings.
Newcastle boss Ernie Merrick changed his side completely in the second stanza, bringing on many of the club’s young brigade.
Five minutes after the interval scholar Joe Champness should have doubled the team’s advantage however he let his chance from inside the box slip.
On 54 minutes the Jets went 2-0 up. Zhu was tripped in the area and the referee pointed to the spot. K. Petratos made the most of the spot kick from 12 yards, sending the keeper the wrong way to double the team’s advantage.
The score became 3-0 in the 77th minute when Devante Clut sent a stunning, curling strike into the back of the net from outside the area.
The scoring was rounded out in the 81st minute when Zhu got his name on the scoresheet. Like Clut he managed to find the net from outside the area.
Second half skipper Nicholas Cowburn went close to making it 5-0 with just four minutes left on the clock, however his set piece strike flew just wide of the woodwork.
The Jets will now focus their preparations on the Club’s 2017 Westfield FFA Cup Round of 32 clash with Adelaide United at Marden Sports Complex on Wednesday 9 August 2017.
Kick-off in South Australia is at 7:00pm local time (7:30pm AEST). Live stream information for the clash can be accessed here.
“They (Maitland FC) made it very difficult for us,” Merrick said after the match. “They defended very well and it was really difficult for us to break them down.”
“I thought our possession in the front half was very good tonight. We kept the ball and delivered quality crosses from the flanks but I didn’t think that we played enough through the middle. I thought Roy (O’Donovan) could have received a lot more balls, and Wayne (Brown) as a number 10 cutting inside.”
“I just feel that we need to have that bit more killer instinct, instead of taking the easy pass wide I think we have to attack down the middle a bit more often.”
“We’ll need to do a lot more to break down teams (such as Adelaide United) and create more goalscoring opportunities, and that’s what we’ll be working on,” he said.
Maitland FC 0
Newcastle Jets 4 (D. Petratos 21’, K. Petratos (pen) 54’, Clut 77’, Zhu 81’)
Venue: Cooks Square Park, East Maitland
Attendance: Approximately 900
