The Newcastle Jets had their first away win in more than a year on Saturday night, a 1-0 victory at A-League titleholders Brisbane Roar.
The Jets beat the now defunct North Queensland Fury 3-1 on January 8 last year and since then had chalked up 10 losses and three draws on the road.
But Brisbane is a favourite stopover for Newcastle, who have now won there seven times in ten visits.
Victory over the second-placed Roar was sealed in the 23rd minute by Jobe Wheelhouse.
He capitalised on the clever work of Ben Kantarovski to take possession inside the penalty area and score from one of a few genuine opportunities in the first half.
Francis Jeffers and Jacob Pepper set-up scoring shots from inside the penalty box in the opening 10 minutes but Roar goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos avoided trouble.
He couldn’t do it a third time when Wheelhouse’s firm strike clipped the keeper’s hand and found the net.
Playing their third match in eight days, the Jets were sluggish on the rain-sodden surface in the second half and spent the last 20 minutes with the bulk of their side in defensive mode.
The Roar’s attacking build-ups promised plenty but failed to deliver.
Defender Ivan Franjic worked play continuously down the right side, using midfielders Massimo Murdocca and Mitch Nichols as conduits to deliver the ball in to the penalty box.
But the attacking finesse and polish that was the Roar’s trademark on the way to winning last season’s title was missing.
Dangerous Roar forward Henrique had a couple of near misses and he was wrongly called off-side in the second half after he had beaten Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy.
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