Newcastle Jets have Melbourne Victory in an entertaining match at Hunter Stadium to send the Jets joint top of the league.
David Carney was the hero on the night for the Jets as he struck a vicious shot from outside the area in the 75th minute to score the only goal of the game.
It is hard to argue with result as the Jets were excellent on the night and deserved to go away with all three points. Milos Trifunovic should have found himself on the scoresheet as he was gifted two opportunities to go one-on-one with Danny Vukovic by sloppy play from Leigh Broxham but failed to make either one count.
Lucky for him, the Victory were lacking the cutting edge in front of goal themselves, failing to find the back of the net. Kennedy was superb in goals for the Jets and was forced into a number of saves to keep arguably the most dangerous front three in the league scoreless.
The first 45 minutes was- end-to-end and both sides had chances to score. The second half saw Melbourne control possession, but it was the Jets on the break that struck from a well worked set piece to open the scoring and were then able to hold on for the remaining 15 minutes.
Formations
With a season-ending ACL injury to Labinot Haliti and Nigel Boogard returning from suspension, the Jets were forced into making changes. Lachlan Jackson made his first appearance of the season at left-back allowing Carney more freedom in his preferred left-wing role. Cam Watson was also dropped to the bench and Ben Kantarovski was moved from centre-back to defensive-midfield.
Newcastle Jets XI (4-2-3-1): Kennedy (GK); Hoffman, Boogard, Mullen, Jackson; Poljak, Kantarovski; Leonardo, Alivodic, Carney; Trifunovic.
The only change for the Victory was Broxham returning to the centre of defence at the expense of the impressive Thomas Deng.
Melbourne Victory XI (4-3-3): Vukovic (GK); Georgievski, Delpierre, Broxham, Murnane; Valeri, Bozanic; Finkler, Barbarouses, Ben Khalfallah; Berisha.
Jets held firm structurally
The Newcastle Jets had a clear game plan going into this game and from the result it clearly paid dividends. For the opening 25 minutes, the Jets pressed Victory high up the field and forced Melbourne to try and play around them. This high press looked as though it was working very effectively for the Jets as they were able to limit the chances created by Victory and should have seen themselves go one up after Broxham gifted the ball to Trifunovic who was unable to be clinical when it mattered.
After 20 minutes, Victory started to catch onto the high press and were able to play around the front three. They looked dangerous with the likes of Oliver Bozanic and Gui Finkler breaking at the vulnerable Jets back four.
A message was quickly relayed out to the players which saw the Jets then sit back and absorb the pressure rather than press. This continued into the second half in which they adopted the approach of sitting very deep and hitting on the counter which proved to be the right move.
Newcastle were dangerous going forward
The front three of Enver Alivodic, Carney and Trifunovic with the support of Leonardo out of midfield were excellent for the Jets. Carney and Alivodic continued to switch sides throughout the match which caused Dylan Murnane and Daniel Georgievski headaches.
With Mateo Poljak and Kantarovski sitting very deep and rarely joining the attack, Leonardo has the freedom to express himself going forward and could well be one of the signings of the off season. He has an eye for a killer pass and knows when to hold onto the ball to control the pace of the game.
Victory lacking attacking versatility
Usually the Victory are known for their free-flowing attacks, but they struggled to break down the Jets defence after Newcastle reverted to the sitting back approach. Victory had a clear tactic to attack down the right-hand side and try to isolate Kosta Barbarouses against makeshift left-back Jackson. Bozanic was picking up the ball in the pockets and then looking to find the feet on Barbarouses nearly every time in the opening half as Muscat tried to exploit the young defender. As a whole, Jackson did well to prevent Barbarouses from causing any real damage despite the Kiwi getting in behind him on a number of occasions.
The second half saw Khalfallah see much more of the ball but again was not able to have as much influence on the attacks as he usually does. Finkler was finding himself in a lot of space on the edge of the area but again was unable to find the killer pass. Berisha was again kept very quiet. His start to this season has been underwhelming by his standards.
Newcastle Jets Conclusion
The Jets go joint top of the league after this result and look to have put last season’s off-field issues behind them.
Tactically, the Jets approached this game very well and deserved the three points. Scott Miller looks as though he has found his feet in the A-League and his recruits have settled in very well.
The Jets created a number of good opportunities while limiting their opponents and if Trifunovic can start finding the back of the net on a consistent basis, they could very well be up in the business end of the table come the season’s end.
Melbourne Victory Conclusion
Victory once again leave Newcastle without a win, which has become a very common occurrence over recent seasons.
It is still very early in the season and Muscat will find positives to take from the game but the champions have not had an ideal start to the season, picking up only four points from a possible nine.
If Berisha does not start performing soon they may have to look elsewhere until he can find consistent form which has seen him be a lethal weapon in the A-League. All the blame can not be put solely on Berisha however as he has been lacking the service from his attacking partners.
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