Adelaide United defender Sasa Ognenovski has scored with virtually the final action in the Round 13 Hyundai A-League match against the Newcastle Jets on Sunday to claim a point for his side.
With the ball lofted into the area in a desperate attempt to equalise, the otherwise impressive Jets ‘keeper Ante Covic came off his line and slipped, allowing Ognenovski to head into an unguarded net and make the final score 1-1.
Matt Thompson gave the defending champions the lead in the 56th minute with a powerful low drive after good lead up work from Jason Naidovski.
The first half was a rather cagey affair with neither Covic nor Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic called into any serious action.
The sides traded long range and speculative attempts throughout – Adam D’Apuzzo shooting harmlessly into the grasp of Galekovic on 10 minutes, with Diego shooting wide a minute later.
On 24 minutes, the impressive Scott Jamieson sent a swerving effort at goal, only for Covic to claim comfortably.
Just three minutes later, the Jets had the best chance of the opening half hour as James Holland had his goal bound shot cleared off the line by Jamieson. After Jobe Wheelhouse had sent in a corner and Jade North had headed back across the face of goal, the ball fell to Holland whose miss-hit strike didn’t have the power to beat Jamieson.
Just before half time Marko Jesic could have sent the Jets to the sheds in front but somehow managed to shoot wide with the goal at his mercy. With Matt Thompson dribbling into the box, the ball found the feet of Jesic who dragged his effort wide from close range.
Coming out after the break the Jets looked the keener of the two sides. On 55 minutes Kantarovski scuffed a decent opportunity much to the relief of Galekovic, however just a minute later the Jets were in the lead.
Naidovski kept the pressure on Angelo Costanzo at the back, forcing him to turn over the ball as he looked for a goal kick. Naidovski then found Thompson whose drive was touched onto the post and in by Galekovic, sending the crowd of 7,136 into raptures.
Just minutes later Naidovski forced Galekovic into a good save as he latched on to a great strike following a strong tackle by Ben Kantarovski.
Adelaide poured forward in the final 20 minutes of the match in search of an equaliser.
Travis Dodd and Alemao both missed good opportunities with the goal gaping, however a desperate Jets defence and a strong Covic were instrumental in stopping the Adelaide raids.
Jesper Hakansson missed a reasonable chance to wrap the points for the Jets on 82 minutes after good lead up play from Marko Jesic and Naidovski.
However the Jets finally succumbed to the late Adelaide onslaught.
With virtually the last action of the match United defender Ognenovski headed a hopeful ball over the Newcastle defence and past Covic, allowing his side to take a point back to Adelaide.
Newcastle Jets 1 (Thompson 56)
Adelaide United 1 (Ognenovski 93)
