A first home win of the season, into the top six for the first time in 2018/19, and two debut goals.
Sunday was a dream afternoon for Jets fans, with the Hyundai A-League boys cruising to victory and picking up spirits dampened by the Westfield W-League defeat to City.
REPORT: Rolling the Roar at home
Here’s what we learnt from the Hyundai A-League win.
On the scoresheet
The end of the first half was nigh, so much so that the ground announcer was informing the gathered 9,719 of the half’s injury time, and Kaine Sheppard thought it was the perfect time to strike.
He got on the end of a magnificent Daniel Georgievski cross, and used the outside of his left boot to glide his first ever Hyundai A-League goal past Jamie Young to put the Jets into the lead.
On the other side of the halftime break, Brazilian import Jair fired home his first goal in Jets colours – and his celebration showed just how much it meant to him.
A debut goal for Jair in the 🔴🔵 and how about that finish from the Brazilian!? #MadeOfNewcastle pic.twitter.com/Hb7lfsYtFo
— NEWCASTLE JETS FC ✈️ (@NewcastleJetsFC) December 9, 2018
Midfield maestros
Ernie Merrick had ruled out Ronny Vargas on Thursday, after missing most of the week’s training due to a niggling injury.
The Venezuelan was enormous in the win, starting a number of moves into the final third and hitting the crossbar with a diving header in the second half.
Also immense, was Ben Kantarovski. The midfielder earned praise from Ernie Merrick in the post-match press conference for his efforts, in both screening the defence and his distribution of the ball.
Outstanding defence
Two of our most consistent performers this season have been veteran centre-backs, Nigel Boogaard and Nikolai Topor-Stanley, and again they were enormous on Sunday.
The pair made 15 clearances between them, won header after header, and were neat and tidy in their distribution moving forward.
While we’re on the topic of defenders though, how good were the wide men: Daniel Georgievski and Ivan Vujica.
Georgievski had a game-high 75 touches, while he and Vujica created two chances each and delivered six crosses between them.
And if it weren’t for that incredible save from Glen Moss in the opening 15 minutes, it could have been a different story entirely for the Jets.
