We left it late, but what an afternoon it was on the Central Coast yesterday as the Jets soared.
Three points in the bag thanks to goals from Jason Hoffman and Ronny Vargas, and a Christmas present like no other for the Newcastle faithful.
REPORT: How it all went down on Sunday
Here’s what we learnt from our win in the 45th F3 Derby.
Derby dominance
Records are there to be broken, and the Jets did just that on Sunday by becoming the first side in this fixture to win four in a row.
It follows the clean sweep last season when Newcastle managed to knock 15 goals through the Central Coast across three encounters.
With the two sides not set to face off again for almost a month, there’s plenty of time to savour this win before we gear up to make it five in a row.
Fire and passion
With traditional F3 Derby villain, Matt Simon once again involved in this historic fixture there was always going to be a bit of aggro.
Local boys such as Ben Kantarovski and Jason Hoffman were right up for it, and the first half was notable for the passion with which both sides approached this match.
The usually quiet Stevie Ugarkovic fired right up and showed he was ready to stamp his mark on the match, and even the relatively diminutive Ronny Vargas shaped up to Simon, much to the delight of Jets fans.
Eleven on the pitch gave everything for the Jets badge on the front, and it wasn’t missed by the incredible travelling who really were the Jets 12th man on Sunday.
Fab four on deck
After eight long Hyundai A-League rounds without him, Roy O’Donovan returned to the starting line-up for the first time since May last year.
It also means that Ernie Merrick was able to play his preferred front four for the first time this season, and it looked a treat on Sunday.
O’Donovan, Ronny Vargas, Dimi Petratos, and Jair have been working on their combinations on the training paddock but were finally able to put things into practice in Gosford.
Merrick will be hoping the four can create plenty of goals for his side, but players like Kaine Sheppard will be hoping they can get in on the act.
He didn’t do his chances any harm yesterday either, coming off the bench and playing a spectacularly weighted ball over the top for Vargas’ winning goal.
