Roar Guru
The Newcastle Jets narrowly avoided a loss on Sunday night, with a late equaliser from Andrew Hoole securing a draw.
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Final score
Western Sydney Wanderers 2
Newcastle Jets 2
The Western Sydney Wanderers play host to the Newcastle Jets for the final match of Round 3 in the A-League. Make sure to join us at The Roar from 7pm (AEDT) for our live scores and blog.
Both teams are coming off impressive victories last week with the Wanderers coming from behind to get the points against Adelaide and the Jets continuing to surprise everyone by beating Brisbane.
Super sub Brendon Santalab was at it again for the Wanderers last week with two goals in the second half, with the winner coming in the 91st minute to get all three points against the champions.
In what is a massive surprise to everybody, Mark Jones’ men remain undefeated after putting on a clinic against the Roar in a 4-0 victory. Andrew Nabbout, the former Melbourne Victory player, was everywhere last week with two assists and many more opportunities, and he’ll be the player to watch this week.
In team news, the Wanderers will now be without their former captain, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who has departed the club for the UAE. With Robert Cornthwaite being subbed out late in the game last week as a precaution, Tony Popovich will be hoping he gets up to partner the impressive youngster Jonathan Aspropotamitis in the heart of defence again.
Aritz Borda will return from suspension and the former Melbourne City player Jacob Melling has been added to the squad.
If the confidence of the Newcastle dressing room wasn’t high already, seeing Labinot Haliti get back onto the pitch after 12 months out will just further boost the morale of the group.
With Newcastle playing so well last week I can’t see any changes to the starting XI, Jason Hoffman has made a quick recovery from his Round 1 calf injury to be included in the extended squad.
Prediction
Newcastle will go into this game with their confidence sky high after the first two performances but it’s never easy going to Western Sydney.
A great second-half performance last week from the Wanderers will give them lots to look forward to this week and they’ll hope to continue the momentum going forward.
That said, it’s hard to not be impressed by what the Jets have done in the first two games of the season so far. So until they give me a reason not to, I’m tipping them to continue their unbeaten start to the season and come away with the three points again.
Wanderers 1-2 Jets.
Be sure to join The Roar to follow all of the action as the Western Sydney Wanderers host the Newcastle Jets.