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Newcastle Jets defeated Central Coast Mariners 1-0 courtesy of a first half goal from Jin-Hyung Song in Budgewoi on Saturday night.
It was grand final deja vu in this trial game in glorious sunshine at the northern tip of the Central Coast, where both the Mariners and the Jets fine tuned their season four preparations with a valuable pre-season hit out that will have served to benefit both clubs greatly.

Both starting line ups were a shadow of the teams that met at the Sydney Football Stadium last February – John Hutchinson, Sasho Petrovski and Alex Wilkinson surviving from the Mariners’ end, while goal scorer Song, Adam Griffiths and Matthew Thompson backed up for the Jets.

“It was a good hit out, a great day, a great crowd, Budgewoi Soccer Club did a great job to get the field up to that standard considering the weather and I’m sure Gary van Egmond would have enjoyed the hit out as well,” said Mariners Football Manager Lawrie McKinna.

“There were a few heavy legs after it – the boys who played ninety minutes will certainly feel it afterwards, but overall it was a good afternoon, we were disappointed that we didn’t take a few of our chances but we’re reasonably happy.”

The Jets opened the scoring at the half hour mark through their Korean import Song, who slotted home comfortably from close range after being put through on goal.

Song formed one part of the Jets’ diminutive centre pairing, which also featured new signing Kaz Patafta (pictured), with their battle against Mariners counterparts Damien Brown and John Hutchinson one of the more intriguing features of the opening stanza.

Sasho Petrovski came closest to breaking the Mariners’ first half deadlock with a powerful header from close range that was denied by Ben Kennedy’s point blank stop.

Petrovski leapt highest to meet the rebound from one of Dylan Macallister’s many possession triumphs in the air, only to be denied by Kennedy’s exceptional reflex save.

Aside from this chance, the Mariners were largely kept at bay by the Jets, who started the match with two trallists to equal the unsigned contingent wearing yellow and navy – youth development co-ordinator Brown and local prospect Nathan Moseley.

Further triallists were introduced on both sides in the second half, where the tempo of the match dropped notably against the unique backdrop offered by Frank Millington Field’s suburban surrounds.

“You can never get enough games and today sets us up well to go to Canberra on Tuesday, where we’ll get another two hard games and then another game when we come back – things are going alright,” said McKinna.

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