Ante Milicic has lauded Macarthur FC after the Bulls overcame a week disrupted by COVID-19 and then fought back from a goal down with 10 men to beat Newcastle 2-1 and retain top spot on the Isuzu UTE A-League table.
Macarthur had goalkeeper Filip Kurto sent off in the 18th minute, then trailed through Beka Mikeltadze’s 35th-minute goal.
But Danny De Silva equalised with a brilliant volley three minutes after halftime before he teed up James Meredith to head home the winner in the 84th minute.
Macarthur are yet to concede from open play, with just two goals against this term, as they sit on top of the ladder.
For Milicic, the fightback was even more special after the Bulls had a difficult build-up amid COVID-19 isolations, capped off by a player testing positive for the virus on Friday.
“It was spectacular. Even more so when when you take into consideration that I hadn’t seen the players since Wednesday, so the group didn’t train Thursday, Friday, Saturday,” Milicic said.
“So our lead-up both on the field and in the video room was pretty much non-existent and that was a major concern going into the game.
“It was probably changing hourly to be honest. Players getting tested, getting a positive result, getting a negative result, not getting their results, waiting.
“‘Can we train? We can’t? Should we do something on zoom with them? Do they go for a jog, get them ticking over? Make sure that they’re focused? Will the game go ahead?’ A lot of scenarios.
“But that’s things that you have to deal with and in the end we got the boys in together early and it’s probably been similar in some ways for today’s opponents.
“So no excuses, we always focus on ourselves and in the end I’m super proud of the boys because they got what they deserved and that’s three points.”
Jets counterpart Arthur Papas had to deal with two positive COVID-19 cases in his ALM program but wouldn’t use it as an excuse.
“I’m not going to come in here now because we dropped points and then all of a sudden start making excuses about why we lost,” Papas said.
“We lost, not because of the disruptions, we lost because we didn’t concentrate enough, we weren’t disciplined enough and we weren’t ruthless enough to finish the game at 1-0.
“I’d take the first 35 minutes and I wouldn’t take much after that in terms of positives.”
Macarthur went down to 10 men when Valentino Yuel burst forward and Kurto came out of his box and clipped the in-form striker with a sliding challenge.
Youngster Nick Suman replaced Kurto and after Mikeltadze was pushed in the back, the Georgian stepped up and fizzed a wonderful strike through the diving goalkeeper’s outstretched palm.
Macarthur’s equaliser came in spectacular fashion when Craig Noone lifted a cross towards De Silva, who smashed home a brilliant volley.
The Bulls struck again after Newcastle youngster Sam Silvera gave away a sloppy free kick in a dangerous area.
De Silva looped his free kick towards the back post and Meredith’s bullet header proved unstoppable.
