Newcastle Jets rocketed to first in the Hyundai A-League with an incredible come-from-behind 2-1 win over Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Saturday.
Trailing 1-0 after a sluggish start, the visitors snapped into life with two goals in the space of two minutes either side of half-time.
A shell-shocked Adelaide failed to recover and were left with a third consecutive defeat, while Ernie Merrick’s unbeaten Jets will hold top spot for at least 24 hours.
STORY OF THE GAME
- Adelaide made a bright start and should have gone ahead through George Blackwood, who was unable to beat Jack Duncan.
- Their early dominance was rewarded with a deserved opener in the 24th minute.
- Newcastle settled as the half wore on and drew two impressive saves from the in-form Paul Izzo.
- But there was little the goalkeeper could do to prevent the Jets from pulling level on the stroke of half-time.
- And it got worse for Adelaide when they coughed up a cheap second barely a minute after the restart.
- It should have been 3-1 moments later, but O’Donovan somehow finished wide of an empty net from Nabbout’s unselfish pass.
- Karim Matmour injected some spark off the bench, the playmaker firing narrowly wide of the right post.
- Baba Diawara headed over in stoppage time and that was the closest Marco Kurz’s side came to an equaliser as the unbeaten Jets saw out a thoroughly professional three points.
GOALS
Mileusnic, Adelaide United 24′: 1-0
Reward for the Reds’ enterprising start. Nikola Mileusnic sprung the offside trap, reeled in Ryan Kitto’s pass and guided a clinical finish into the bottom right corner.
Kantarovski, Newcastle Jets 45′: 1-1
An unlikely source for the equaliser! The midfielder bullied his way to the front post and volleyed in Dimitri Petratos’ whipped delivery following a short corner.
Nabbout, Newcastle Jets 47′: 1-2
Ben Warland’s careless back-pass was picked off by Andrew Nabbout, who rounded Paul Izzo and completed the comeback.
