For the ninth round of the A-League season Melbourne Victory travelled north to face the Newcastle Jets, and like so often this season produced a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
The most positive aspect about this game had little to do with the happenings on the park.
Newcastle’s biggest crowd since 2006/07, which included the usual solid contingent of travelling Melbourne Victory fans, clicked the turnstiles over a healthy 17,245 times.
Given Melbourne’s mixed form this season and the Jets taking only four of their last fifteen points available, the turn-out wasn’t to see two scintillating teams but was no doubt heavily influenced by the presence of a certain Harry Kewell.
The numbers were clearly a sign that if you get the right marquee the crowds will come – and they came despite Harry being questioned in some quarters for his poor form and lack of contribution.
That criticism couldn’t be made of his performance in this game which was without doubt his best since the opening salvo against Sydney, and possibly a sign that he is slowly settling into the team after a reasonable run last week against the Gold Coast.
Hernandez looked in sparkling form early with some deft touches and a typical spanking goal from twenty yards out (although he disappeared in the later stages of the game).
On the surface this looked like one of the better Victory performances this year.
It certainly seemed a more even performance although Thompson and Celeski, while busy, were well down on last week.
The energy of Hernandez and Kewell, combined with the openness of the game, was probably masking the underlying deficiencies which later took their toll.
The Bad
Continuing the theme of recent weeks, Victory conceded three goals through appalling defensive work and Rojas should consider himself lucky to be picking up a match fee.
He’s contributed nothing this season and once again looked like a lost soul wandering around in the wilderness for most of his 60 minutes on the park.
There is no dazzle in attack and zero defensive pressure and tonight when defensive pressure came it arrived in the form of a rugby tackle on Ryan Griffiths in the penalty box!
The second goal was down to lazy work by Fabio who lagged five yards behind the defensive line allowing a sweeping change of play to find Brockie.
The New Zealand international easily took him down to the byline before clipping a perfect cross to Haliti, who nodded home under no pressure from Franjic at the far post.
The third goal was courtesy of an appalling back tap by Cernak gifting a clear run on goal to Zadkovich, whose initial shot spilled out to Griffiths to tap in his second for the evening.
Muscat must be thinking that this assistant coaching caper is harder than it looks when a team can make school boy errors like these in the area of the park that he once ruled with an iron boot.
The team is currently leaking goals like a sieve and Fabio is a serial offender either through laziness or simple defensive lapses.
What is most annoying is that any supporter could have told the club they were vulnerable last year in defense and the club did little to shore up the back half of the park in the off season.
Ironically our new attacking midfield options – Rojas and Cernak – cost us goals, and the one new defensive player, Fabio, was responsible for the other.
The Ugly
Referees and referees assistants who can’t spot a penalty when every one else in the stadium can see it are a blight on the game.
Even the Novacastrians groaned at the obvious foul when Thompson went down under a clumsy Topor-Stanley challenge.
If the officials can’t get these critical decisions right then we should accept that they occasionally need help and embrace video review of contentious decisions.
The game should have been 2-2 and Victory in the ascendency but it wasnt to be.
For the luddites who say it all balances out, that is scant compensation to the Gold Coast which conceded a non-penalty last week, or to Melbourne which deserved one this week.
Maybe the players should stay home and we’ll just ask the refs to nominate a final score line as they are having a grossly undue influence on so many matches.
Another Thing
Other notable question marks were the withdrawal of Kewell at the 74 minute mark when he was looking the most likely avenue to goal either as a scorer or provider.
The decision looked pre-planned rather than taking account of the state of the game and Melbourne seemed to loose momentum with this decision with Allsopp unable to get into the match.
Whether this match is seen by Melbourne supporters positively – playing encouragingly in defeat, or negatively – another example of failing to hold onto a lead, or neutrally – hard done by due to poor officiating, will of course depend on your own view.
Unfortunately, it is probably a neutral result for Mehmet and most supporters.
On balance it neither strengthens nor weakens his position which is the worst result for all concerned as it takes us no closer to resolving if he is the right man for the job.
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