The Newcastle Jets have their first point on the road since Round 1, after fending off 90 minutes of pressure from the Brisbane Roar to hold on to a 1-1 draw at Suncorp Stadium.
Brisbane registered 19 attempts at goal to the visitors’ three and it wasn’t until the 79th minute that Reinaldo broke through, but coach Ange Postecoglou was happy to take the positives from a dominate performance.
“It was a frustrating night, but I keep preaching to these boys that it’s more about the performance and the football we play, so I can’t have any complaints tonight,” said Postecoglou.
“We created enough opportunities – their goalkeeper was outstanding.”
Despite playing almost the entire match on the defensive, Newcastle head coach Branko Culina was still a little upset to miss out on a first away win for the season.
“When you lead for most of the game you can’t help be a little disappointed, but at the same time you can’t take anything away from them,” he said.
The Roar were putting plenty of pressure on the Jets from the opening whistle, and at the two-minute mark Reinaldo took the first shot of the game running onto a loose ball only to spray his shot closer to the corner flag than the corner post.
A beautiful interchange of passing whizzed from Erik Paartalu to Kosta Barbarouses to Milan Susak and finally back to Paartalu who’s unmarked shot from the penalty spot was well covered by a diving Ben Kennedy.
Newcastle were pushing forward with abandon, but time and again the Roar were intercepting and countering with real intent through the likes of Matt McKay and Reinaldo.
But in the 18th minute the tide turned for Newcastle when Matthew Smith made a horrible mess of a speculative cross from Jeremy Brockie, deflecting the ball into the net past Theoklitos who had been in position to take the ball safely.
Now chasing, Brisbane pushed forward with renewed vigour and after regular offender Ruben Zadkovic picked up a yellow card for a hard foul at the top of the area, Paartalu again demanded a good save of Kennedy with a hard driven shot from the set-piece.
Brisbane had another chance seemingly destined for the net rebuffed by the agility and solid positional play of Kennedy, who did well to track a neatly lobbed pass across the goal-face to throw himself in front of Susak’s volleyed shot at goal.
Brisbane returned from the interval to resume their dominance of the field position, but their probing attack was being well held outside the area by a solid Jets defence.
Broich thought he had the answer with a scorching shot from outside the area, but again it was Kennedy launching himself acrobatically to hold the lead for Newcastle.
As the second half wore on Brisbane were throwing everything into attack, but with smart transitions and raw physicality the Novocastrians were shutting down every approach.
Eventually though something had to give, and from the corner it was Reinaldo who had the break-through, slotting a sharp header past Kennedy, who after a brilliant game in goal showed he was human by misjudging his attempted parry.
With time ticking down, Brisbane were searching desperately for a late winner, but as ever it was the last pass letting them down.
Brisbane Roar: 11 (Reinaldo 79)
Newcastle Jets: 11 (Smith 18og)
Crowd: 10,190
