Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United played out a dramatic 3-3 draw at No.2 Sportsground on Wednesday afternoon, with five goals scored between both sides in the final 20 minutes of the six-goal thriller.
Newcastle were two goals down on two occasions but never said die in a resilient showing from the home side in torrential conditions.
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Fiona Worts put Adelaide in front just four minutes after kick-off and that’s how the score remained until the 74th minute when the contest exploded into life.
Emily Condon made it 2-0 for the Reds before Josie Allan halved the deficit for the Jets just two minutes later.
LucÃa León then restored Adelaide’s two-goal lead before Deven Jackson headed Newcastle back into the contest at 3-2 in the 84th minute.
Then, deep into stoppage time, Claire Adams came off the bench to head Newcastle Jets back on level terms at 3-3 with her first professional goal, as the final whistle blew to conclude a truly dramatic showdown at No.2 Sportsground.
As the rain poured in Newcastle, Adelaide took no time at all to settle into the conditions and took the lead just four minutes after kick-off.
Chelsie Dawber provided the assist with a perfectly placed pass into the box. Worts didn’t have to break stride as she met the ball with a first-time shot and put Adelaide into the lead with her seventh goal of the Ninja A-League season.
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Conditions only got worse as the first half continued but in the sheeting rain, Sheridan Gallagher came close to equalising for the hosts with a blistering shot from distance that Claudia Jenkins did well to tip over the bar.
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The Jets continued their pursuit of a leveller and on the half-hour mark, Gallagher was involved again as she swung an ambitious ball to the back post where Lauren Allan leapt to dispatch a header on target that Jenkins was once again up to the task of saving.
Tempers flared in the second half as Gallagher and Adelaide defender Matilda McNamara locked horns in a series of tense tussles, with both players receiving yellow cards after half-time.
The Jets were well on top of the Reds and looked far likelier to score in the second half – but then came Condon’s goal against the run of play.
Condon doubled her side’s lead with a composed finish into the bottom-left corner after a driving run through midfield.
But before Adelaide could get comfortable with a two-goal lead, substitute Josie Allan struck back for the hosts just two minutes after Condon made it 2-0.
Allan had come off the bench shortly before scoring Newcastle’s first of the game. It initially looked as though the 18-year-old was attempting to whip a cross off the left wing into the danger zone but her delivery got caught in the wind, and looped over the head of Jenkins into the top-right corner.
The action was far from over at No.2 Sportsground as Adelaide restored their two-goal lead – incredibly, just three minutes after Newcastle halved the deficit.
León scored Adelaide’s third of the afternoon from a corner routine. Left all alone in the box, León rose to meet the delivery and under little pressure from the Jets defence, was able to nod the ball past Robertson with ease as Adelaide took a 3-1 lead.
With their two-goal advantage restored, Adelaide looked set to cruise to a big win on the road – but the Jets had other ideas, as Jackson’s 84th-minute finish brought the hosts back to within one goal.
Libby Copus-Brown supplied the superb delivery for Jackson’s headed finish and Young Matilda Lara Gooch was similarly precise with her stoppage-time ball toward the six-yard box, which substitute Adams met with a perfectly-timed header to score Newcastle’s third goal of the game and equalise at 3-3 at the death.
