The Newcastle Jets have defeated the Melbourne Victory with a comprehensive 4-2 win at EnergyAustralia Stadium tonight.
The Newcastle Jets have defeated the Melbourne Victory with a comprehensive 4-2 win at EnergyAustralia Stadium tonight.
A hat-trick to defender-cum-attacker Matt Thompson combined with Korean Jin-Hyung Song-s first ever goal for the club gave the Newcastle Jets the morale boosting win.
Given a standing ovation at halftime courtesy of their strong two-goal effort in the opening forty-five, Newcastle continued their dominant display at the start of the second half, netting in 49th and 60th minutes.
In a lively opening to the match, Archie Thompson looked to have given the Victorians the lead on nine minutes, only for his goal to be ruled out for offside.
Matt Thompson made no mistake just minutes later though, his powerful header from Marko Jesic-s cross leaving Victory keeper Michael Theoklitos with no chance.
On 26 minutes, Thompson won the ball on the edge of the Victory area and the ball ended up at the feet of Joel Griffiths who hit a snap shot that went agonisingly wide of the mark.
In first half injury time Jesic once again turned provider, this time firing in a cross which ricocheted off of Michael Thwaite. Thompson pounced on the loose ball and found the back of the net with a sweet left-footed strike, completing the midfielder-s first-half brace.
Things only got better for Thompson 4 minutes after the interval when he scored his first hat-trick for the Jets after being played clean through on goal by a superb ball by youngster Ben Kantarovski.
In the 60th minute Song then netted his first goal in the Hyundai A-League, tapping in from close range from a well-weighted Joel Griffiths cross.
The Jets looked good for their four goal advantage, but were pegged back late in the game thanks to goals in the 66th minute to striker Danny Allsopp, and the 87th minute to Ney Fabiano.
After the game, hat-trick hero Thompson was understandably rapt with his, and the team-s, wonderful performance.
“It is always nice to get one for me, but to get three was unreal but the best thing was getting the three points it was much needed,” said Thompson.
“We do (think we can make the finals) but we are just looking at each game week-in week-out and see if other results go our way,” he added.
Match Details:
Newcastle Jets Squad: 1.Ante COVIC (gk), 2.Adam GRIFFITHS, 3.Jade NORTH (c), 8.Matt THOMPSON, 9.Joel GRIFFITHS, 10.Jin-Hyung SONG (29.Sean ROONEY 87-), 11.Tarek ELRICH, 13. Adam D’APUZZO, , 16.Ben KANTAROVSKI, 24.Marko JESIC, 26.Mark MILLIGAN
Unused substitutes: 30.Justin PASFIELD (gk), 7.Kaz PATAFTA, 14.Shaun ONTONG
Yellow cards: Ben Kantarovski 58-
Red cards: Nil
Melbourne Victory Squad: 1.Michael THEOKLITOS (gk), 2.Kevin MUSCAT (Captain), 3.Michael THWAITE, 9.Danny ALLSOPP, 10.Archie THOMPSON, 12.Rodrigo VARGAS, 14.Billy CELESKI, 16.Carlos HERNANDEZ (11.NEY FABIANO 66-), 17.Jose Luis LOPEZ, 19.Evan BERGER (7.Matthew KEMP 45-), 22.Nick WARD
Unused substitutes: 20.Mitchell LANGERAK (gk), 15.Tom PONDELJAK
Yellow cards: Evan Berger 19-,Billy Celeski 22-, Nick Ward 62-
Red cards: Nil
Newcastle Jets: 4 (Thompson 16/45+1-/49-, Song 60-)
Melbourne Victory: 2 (Allsopp 66-, Ney Fabiano 87-)
Crowd: 6,268
Referee: Craig Zetter
