Round 22 in both the Liberty A-League Women and Isuzu UTE A-League Men continued on Friday, as Coopers Stadium played host to a double-header.
Kicking off the evening’s action in the Liberty A-League, Newcastle Jets kept their finals hopes alive with a barnstorming 8-0 win over Adelaide United on the road. The Jets jumped into fifth place on the table with the club’s biggest-ever win in the competition to heap pressure on both Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory to respond with positive results of their own this weekend as a three-team battle for two spots in the six goes down to the wire.
Then, attention turned to the Isuzu UTE A-League as a career-first hat-trick to Nestory Irankunda fired Adelaide United to a 4-1 win over Western United.
Re-live all the action below.
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Adelaide United 0-8 Newcastle Jets (Liberty A-League)
MATCH CENTRE: Click here for stats, highlights, video and more
Newcastle Jets stormed into fifth place on the Liberty A-League table with an 8-0 mauling of Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Friday afternoon – the club’s biggest win in the competition’s history.
Two goals to both Melina Ayres and Lara Gooch set the tone for the ruthless win on the road. Cassidy Davis, Lauren Allan, Emma Dundas and Alex Huynh all added to Newcastle’s massive scoring haul as the Jets stormed into the finals places in style.
Newcastle needed a win to keep their post-season hopes alive and thrived under pressure to end the regular season on a high, as Adelaide crawled to the finish line in their last game of the campaign.
The Reds would have taken an early lead if not for the superb glovework of 17-year-old Tiahna Robertson, signed on an injury replacement contract in midweek before her Liberty A-League debut with first-choice Jets keeper Izzy Nino suspended for the road trip to Adelaide.
Newcastle began the afternoon in seventh place on the table but ended the game in fifth, jumping both Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory and dumping the latter outside the finals standings – for now.
The Jets are level with the Wanderers and Victory on 33 points and need one of the two sides to lose their Round 22 fixtures to seal a spot in the finals. Western Sydney play Wellington Phoenix on Saturday, while Victory face league-leaders Sydney FC away from home on Sunday afternoon.
The formidable victory came in captain Davis’ 150th Liberty A-League game, beating the club’s previous best winning-margin of 7-1 recorded against Adelaide in 2011.
FULL MATCH REPORT: Newcastle’s biggest-ever win ignites finals charge as top-six battle goes the distance
Adelaide United 4-1 Western United (Isuzu UTE A-League)
MATCH CENTRE: Click here for stats, updates, video and more
Nestory Irankunda became the youngest hat-trick scorer in Isuzu UTE A-League history in Adelaide United’s 4-1 win over Western United at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
Irankunda – aged 18 years and 49 days – opened the scoring in the first half, before sealing his hat-trick with two goals in the first three minutes of the second stanza to eclipse Nathan Burns (18 years, 259 days) as the youngest player to score three goals in an Isuzu UTE A-League game.
Michael Ruhs pegged one back for Western shortly after Irankunda’s third but Zach Clough iced the result with an 80th-minute penalty that wrapped up all three points for the Reds, before Western defender Tomoki Imai received a red card for an altercation with Ryan Kitto in second-half stoppage time.
Australian football historian Andrew Howe confirmed Irankunda as the second-youngest hat-trick scorer in Australian men’s national football league history behind John Panagis of West Adelaide in 1984 at 18 years and 32 days.
FULL MATCH REPORT: Bayern-bound teen’s first career hat-trick smashes records in big win for Reds
REACTION: Every word of Aloisi’s stunning praise for prodigious Adelaide prospect after career-first feat
