Newcastle make it seven in a row with thumping win over Perth

The Newcastle Jets have extended their lead at the top of the Isuzu UTE A-League table and made it seven wins in a row with a 3-1 victory over Perth Glory at HBF Park.

Lachie Bayliss, Lachie Rose and Xavier Bertoncello’s goals set up the win for the Jets, with Stefan Colakovski finding a consolation for the Glory in stoppage time.

Making matters worse for Perth, defensive rock Brian Kaltak was sent off in the 67th minute after dragging back Will Dobson when the Jets man was through on goal.

Bayliss opened the scoring in the 15th minute after Eli Adams and Daniel Wilmering worked a short corner to him just outside the area.

The 23-year-old spied a fraction of an opening at the far post and that was all the invitation he needed to curl the ball past Perth keeper Matt Sutton.

The rest of the first half was high on energy but short on quality efforts on goal; Will Freney’s speculative crack from long range that went straight into the arms of Newcastle keeper James Delianov was the only other shot on target.

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The Jets doubled their lead inside two minute of the second half, with another short corner proving the Glory’s undoing.

Scott Wootton’s late challenge on Adams was brilliant, but Rose rejoined Wellington’s Ifeanyi Eze at the top of the golden boot charts from the ensuing corner after Dobson and Bayliss linked to set him up.

The goal was Rose’s eighth for the season.

While Will Freney continued to test Delianov from distance, the rescue job got much harder for the Glory in the 67th minute when Kaltak took Dobson down as last man and was sent off.

Referee Lachlan Keevers had no hesitation in reaching for his red card after Kaltak reached out and tugged at Dobson’s shorts after the Newcastle man had picked the ball up beyond the Perth defence and started to put distance between himself and the big Vanuatuan.

The red card is Kaltak’s fourth in his Isuzu UTE A-League career.

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Perth struggled to overcome their personnel disadvantage after the red card, and it was no surprise when the Jets extracted another goal from the game in the 81st minute.

This time it was super sub Xavier Bertoncello who etched his name on the scoresheet, with Japanese star Kota Mizunuma setting up the goal when afforded enough time and space on the right hand side to pick the 20-year-old Jets academy graduate to cannon the ball into the roof of the net from close range.

Sam Sutton showed the Jets that Perth still had some life in them when he forced Delianov into a save from a long range free kick, before Colakovski gave the Glory fans something to cheer about in the first minute of stoppage time.

Ostler was the architect of the goal, finding Charbel Shamoon at the back post to nod to the penalty spot for Colakovski to score his second consecutive 91st minute goal.

The goal means that Newcastle have still only kept one clean sheet this campaign, which is likely to be one of the few headaches for Jets head coach Mark Milligan at the moment.

While the Glory have the aforementioned away game in Adelaide next Friday, the Jets will be hoping the good times continue to roll when they host Macarthur next Sunday evening.