A spectacular strike on home debut by Abdiel Arroyo was not enough on Saturday afternoon, as the Jets fell 2-1 at home to Adelaide United courtesy of a second-half double to former Jet, Riley McGree.
In blustery conditions, Newcastle almost got off to the perfect start when great work down the left from Johnny Koutroumbis saw both Arroyo and Hoffman just inches away from opening the scoring inside the first minute.
The Jets were assisted by the wind in the opening half and dominated possession, but it took until the 37th minute to take the lead through a wonderful piece of work from Abdiel Arroyo.
A long throw from Matt Millar found the chest of Arroyo, and the Panamanian international produced a wonderful chest and volley on the turn to power the ball past Paul Izzo to give the Jets the lead.
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After the interval, the visitors jumped out of the blocks and found an equaliser through Riley McGree in the 48th minute. The youngster struck again in the 61st, directing in his second goal directly from the corner.
With a goal now needed, Ernie Merrick turned to his bench and introduced Angus Thurgate and Ben Kantarovski to the midfield. That helped turned the tide, and the Jets thought they had an equaliser in the 69th minute.
A ball floated in from the left was headed down by Abdiel Arroyo and found it’s way out to Matt Ridenton on the top of the box, who thrashed it into the top corner – but the whistle went, and there’d been a handball in the lead-up from Arroyo.
Pushing to find the leveller, Maki Petratos was handed a Hyundai A-League debut but his introduction didn’t prove the magic bullet as Adelaide took all three points.
Newcastle now turn their attentions to next weekend’s Round 4 clash, heading down the freeway to take on Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval.
