The Newcastle Jets have defeated Melbourne Victory 1-0 in their National Youth League clash at Bob Jane Stadium on Saturday.
The opening minutes saw end to end play without any real threat to either goal. Nick Ward was prominent early for Victory gaining some early touches all over the park.
The Jets had an early opportunity to strike in the 10th minute after Fabio Di Lizia fouled Shaun Ontong on the edge the box. The resulting free kick was taken by Jesper Hakansson but it was met easily by Mitchell Langerak.
Melbourne had a golden opportunity to open the scoring in the 17th minute when a good through ball by Pantelidis put Ward in the box. With just Ben Kennedy to beat, Ward shot over the bar.
In the 19th minute only the brilliance of Mitchell Langerak came between the Jets and the lead. Matt Thompson’s pass found Jason Naidovski whose shot to the bottom right corner was palmed out by the diving Langerak.
Newcastle opened the scoring in the 27th minute. The Jets were awarded the free kick for handball only 10 metres outside the box. Matt Thompson’s curling free was saved by Langerak only for Marko Jesic to smash the rebound into the back of the net.
In the 41st minute Victory had another chance when Ward threaded a gap to pass to Nathan Elasi whose shot was blocked by Kennedy.
An eventful first half came to an end after one additional minute with the Jets leading 1-0.
Victory started the second half in the same manner as the first with attacking play. Leigh Broxham’s shot from outside the box in the 47th minute was taken by Kennedy diving low to his right.
Victory had a free kick in the 48th minute after a foul by Antun Kovacic resulted in him being the first player booked for the game. Nick Ward met the free with a glancing header, but it was well over the cross bar.
The end to end action continued with Langerak’s best efforts required to dive at full stretch and palm out Kovacic’s header in the 51st minute.
After an early flurry of goal scoring opportunities early in the second half, the free flowing play became somewhat halted with some tackles and rough challenges resulting in yellow cards to the Victory’s Leigh Broxham and Mifit Bojku.
The Jets had a chance to double their advantage in the 76th minute when Hakansson passed the ball to Patafta, who laid it off to Harper, running towards Langerak, but his shot was poor and didn’t force the Victory stopper into making a save.
In the 85th minute Ward chased down a seemingly lost ball before it went out of play to earn his team a corner. Di Lizia met the corner with an unchallenged header but it was over the cross bar.
In the 90th minute Victory pushed forward once again. Griffiths rushed to the ball but the bounce was unkind, leaving him to head it from outside the box. It went to Ward who centred to Elasi, whose shot was cleared off the line by a desperate Newcastle defence.
The Jets held off the late challenge from Victory to record only their second win of the season. The win keeps them in touch with the top four on 7 points, whilst Victory remain on the bottom with only one win from their eight matches.
Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic was pleased with his team’s performance, but disappointed with the result.
“We played quite well and had our chances,” he said.
“One mistake in defence was costly, we are a young side and made small mistakes.”
Durakovic was positive his side could bounce back and find some winning form.
“We will look at the mistakes made and try to rectify them,” he said.
“We are not doing a lot wrong, but it is a matter of simple mistakes costing us.”
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