A brace from John Aloisi has helped Sydney to a 2-0 victory over Newcastle in a pre-season trial match at Port Macquarie Regional Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Aloisi opened the scoring in the sixth minute when he latched onto an errant pass before calmly slotting home when one-on-one with Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy.
Newcastle dominated the rest of the half but failed to equalise with Sky Blues keeper Clint Bolton in fine form.
Aloisi scored his second eight minutes into the second half when tapped home after a fine cross from Alex Brosque.
“This was another important game during pre-season,” said Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka.
“We played against a very good opponent, especially in the first half. They tested us. I am happy.”
Jets assistant coach Mark Jones said the game was a valuable hit-out for the players as the Jets begin their pre-season preparations.
“I thought we actually played alright, we’ve got a lot of boys who haven’t played for a long time,” he said.
“I thought we lasted the game quite well. We had a couple of glorious opportunities that we should have taken and apart from our own defensive errors, I don’t think that we were broken down too many times and I was quite happy with that.”
“Today was quite positive, obviously after the season we had last year anything new is going to bring an air of optimism about it. So, despite the result, we can take quite a bit out of this match moving forward.”
Meanwhile, a last-minute own goal from Alex Wilkinson robbed Central Coast of victory against a Capital Football select XI.
The Mariners twice fought back from a goal down before taking the lead with just over 30 minutes left, however the late own goal left the two teams locked at 3-3.
Nicky Travis, Adrian Caceres and Pedj Bojic were all on target for the Mariners, who continue their pre-season preparations with a trial against Gold Coast next Saturday.
