The Newcastle Jets have drawn 1-1 this evening in an entertaining match against Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.
The Newcastle Jets have drawn 1-1 this evening in an entertaining match against Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.
A sublime early strike by Korean dynamo Jin-Hyung Song was cancelled out by a late stunner by Adelaide-s Brazilian import Cassio.
The visitors took the initiative and started in fine fashion when Song opened the scoring in just the 6th minute of the game. Adam D-Apuzzo won the ball deep inside Reds- territory and played the ball to Jets debutant Michael Bridges who touched the ball square for Song to run onto. The 22-year-old made no mistake to record his second goal of the season.
Moments later, Labinot Haliti nearly doubled the Jets- lead when he latched onto a Fabio Vignaroli cross from the right and hit a spectacular overhead only to see the ball go wide of Eugene Galekovic-s goal.
The team from the Hunter Valley continued to push forward in numbers, despite being away from home, and were again almost rewarded in the 37th minute when marquee player Vignaroli whipped in a splendid ball to Song-s feet. The Korean-s left-footed strike was held well though by Galekovic.
Minutes from the end of the opening stanza and Reds striker Lloyd Owusu had the chance to restore parity when he rose highest for a Scott Jamieson corner, but his header bounced harmlessly over the bar.
A drama-charged second half heated up in the 58th minute when Lucas Pantelis won a penalty for the home side. Skipper Travis Dodd stepped up to convert the spot-kick, but goalkeeper Ben Kennedy moved swiftly to his left to make an outstanding save and keep the lead intact.
The Reds were dominating possession and pressing hard for the equaliser but the resolute Jets- defence frustrated Adelaide for much of the final period. That was until 14 minutes from time, when Cassio volleyed home one of the goals of the season from the edge of the area after Owusu nodded down what seemed an innocuous free-kick.
The goalmouth action was not to finish there though, with substitute Jobe Wheelhouse having a goal ruled out in the 86th minute for offside after he was played clean through by Vignaroli. Replays showed it was an extremely tight decision that went against the Novocastrian, who was making his return to the Hyundai A-League after suffering an ankle injury in the pre-season.
Remarkably, the visitors would have one final chance to claim all three competition points when Tarek Elrich shrugged off Inseob Shin and hit a left-footed strike from the edge of the box. With Galekovic well beaten, the ball curled millimetres wide of the left post to deny the lively right-back what would have been a deserved winner befitting such an entertaining encounter.
After the match, Branko Culina was pleased that his side was able to end their 3-match losing streak.
“It was good to at least get a point out of the game,” he explained. “I think our performance over the past few weeks has been encouraging, we-ve played some good football without getting much of a result.”
“We-ve got a week off next week, so we-ll have a bit of time to work on that. It will be great to have Ben Kantarovski back, he-s a quality player, and we-ve got Sean Rooney and Jason Hoffman back. So, for the first time, we-ll have actually a bit of competition for places which will be very nice,” Culina said.
Match details:
Adelaide United: 1. Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 2. Robert CORNTHWAITE, 4.Iain FYFE, 6.CASSIO, 7.Lucas PANTELIS (9.CRISTIANO 70-), 8.Kristian SARKIES (16.Inseob SHIN 88-), 10.Adam HUGHES (19.Mathew LECKIE 55-), 11.Lloyd OWUSU, 13.Travis DODD (c), 14.Scott JAMIESON, 21.Mark RUDAN
Unused substitutes: 20.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk)
Yellow cards: Cassio 22-, Lloyd Owusu 88-
Red cards: Nil
Newcastle Jets: 1. Ben KENNEDY (gk), 3. Adam D-APUZZO, 4. Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, 5. Ljubo MILICEVIC, 7. Jin-Jung SONG, 8. Matthew THOMPSON (c), 11. Tarek ELRICH, 14. Michael BRIDGES (9. Sasho PETROVSKI 83-), 17. Fabio VIGNAROLI, 25. Labinot HALITI (22. Kaz PATAFTA 83-), 26. Ali ABBAS (12. Jobe WHEELHOUSE 73-)
Unused substitutes: 20. Neil YOUNG (gk)
Yellow cards: Adam D-Apuzzo 35-, Fabio Vignaroli 75-
Red cards: Nil
Adelaide United: 1 (Cassio 76-)
Newcastle Jets: 1 (Song 6-)
Referee: Chris BEATH
Crowd: 12,090
