Daniel Wilmering’s goal in the 94th minute rescued a 1-1 draw for table-topping Newcastle against Adelaide United.
Ryan White led his side brilliantly and his goal gave them the lead in the 72nd minute. Adelaide had the ball in the net twice more but both were ruled out before Daniel Wilmering poked home the equaliser with practically the final kick of the game.
The draw is the second stalemate played out amongst the top four this afternoon after Auckland drew with Melbourne Victory. Newcastle’s lead at the top is boosted to three points and Adelaide go third, one point ahead of Melbourne Victory.
As a very quiet first half came to an end, Newcastle came very close to snatching the lead when Zach Clough held onto the ball in a crowded penalty area and poked it out for Xavier Bertoncello whose shot clipped the outstretched leg of Ethan Alagic and struck the top of the near post.
The Jets had everyone fooled when, after a lengthy discussion around who would be taking a free kick in a dangerous area, Clayton Taylor darted into the box and the ball was dinked over the wall, into his feet and he poked it into the back of the net. But before it got there, the referee blew his whistle and demanded the free-kick be retaken because he hadn’t given them permission to play it quickly.
Both sides made a flurry of substitutions with 25 minutes to play and then immediately exchanged decent chances. Jonny Yull’s was the better of the two – he cut onto his left and flashed his shot narrowly wide of the far post.
A lively game finally got its goal and it all started when Lachie Rose was played in perfectly by Clough but fired his shot straight into Joshua Smits. Adelaide burst up the other end and scored within seconds when Anselmo spun and slid the ball through nicely for Ryan White who was given clear passage through the home defence, touched it past James Delianov, and rolled it home.
Three minutes later Adelaide looked to have doubled their lead when Anselmo’s pullback found Alagic and he swept it home calmly but VAR deemed that the ball had crossed the byline in the build up.
Adelaide surged forward again and when Yull rolled the ball back and flicked it into Anselmo, he twisted, jumped and turned home an overhead kick but always seemed off-side and the linesman raised his flag before any celebrations could begin.
Then, in the 94th minute, Eli Adams drove a shot into the crowded penalty area and a deflection drew an awkward parry from Smits that was gobbled up by Daniel Wilmering who rescued a point with his first goal of the season.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
WHAT THEY SAID
Mark Milligan
Airton Andrioli
