A brain explosion from Mark Milligan has given Newcastle a boost back to the top of the A-League table as the Jets put four goals past 10-man Melbourne Victory.
Thursday night’s combustible 4-1 contest put brought Victory back to earth after their first win of the season in Perth last Sunday, leaving Kevin Muscat’s men at risk of slipping back out of the top six before the end of the round.
Kosta Barbarouses marked his return from international duty with a fifth-minute screamer, but it wasn’t long before Daniel Georgievski equalised, Joey Champness then adding to Andrew Nabbout’s brace to seal the result.
But the match review panel will likely only remember Milligan’s headbutt to Georgievski’s chest that earned him a straight red.
“It was such a disappointing night,” Muscat said.
“We started really well, scored a really good goal, and after that it was nowhere near good enough.”
Victory started on the front foot and so quick was the opener that debuting Glen Moss hadn’t even touched the ball for his new club before he was picking it out of his own net.
James Troisi’s ball left Barbarouses with a lot to do, but the Kiwi caught it on the bounce and powered over Moss’s head.
Ten minutes later Georgievski hammered home the equaliser with similar pizzazz, taking a feed from Dimi Petratos, skirting around two defenders and unleashing into the top corner.
With the ledger level, Ernie Merrick’s men would benefit from two unfortunate incidents.
Injury-prone defender Rhys Williams limped off the pitch 20 minutes in and was subbed for Matias Sanchez.
Georgievski shoved into Milligan, earning himself a yellow card.
But as referee Stephen Lucas reached for his pocket the Socceroos utility retaliated, launching himself head first at his former teammate and was given his marching orders for his efforts.
It did not take long for the hosts to exploit their numerical advantage.
Nabbout tapped in a classy Jason Hoffman cross for Victory to take a lead into the break.
Victory reorganised at halftime and the Jets lost some of their intensity – and Hoffman and Georgievski to injuries.
Yet it wasn’t long before a quick Nabbout throw-in caught Thomas well off his line with Champness on hand to slide home his second career goal.
Petratos rattled the crossbar, and then gave Nabbout his second tap-in at the far post.
Jets coach Ernie Merrick was delighted with his side’s rebound from the Sydney FC loss.
“It was a good reaction to have,” Merrick said.
“We gave the goal away and that seems to work for us – we give a goal away and then we start playing.”
Kurt
Guest
I hope muscat with his sense of disciple gets to coach the socceroos... said no one ever
Hector Stubbs
Guest
Are you being ironic,seeing that City are second in the league in fouls,an average of nearly 16 per game They're nowhere near the lead in much else. Oh except they're second in Yellow cards too
hogdriller
Roar Rookie
And you know, that there might be their problem, not up to their usual standard of fouling others. Even Valeri was unusually quiet last night as opposed to normally hacking any one that tries to get past him.
Josh Barton
Roar Pro
He spent a bit of time with the national side recently so this doesn't surprise me. This Victory form slump couldn't have come at a worse time for him though
pete4
Guest
Interesting story doing the rounds that Muscat is seen by the FFA as the Socceroos coach post World Cup Most likely Euro coach for us at WC with Muscat his assistant before taking over
Nemesis
Guest
Jets were the better team & 4-1 was more than accurate reflection of their dominance. Victory's lack of cohesion moving the ball forward probably had something to do with the Jets cynically fouling MV players whenever they tried to string a pass together. Foul count: Jets: 22 MV: 7 And, it's not like the ref was biased toward MV, since he gave Milligan a RC (correctly) and ignored Georgievski's challenge that was intended to break Milligan's ankle & should have been a red, which is why Milligan was incensed. Troisi was fouled 7 times. George was fouled 4 times So, the 2 play-makers at Victory were fouled more than the entire Jets team was fouled by MV.
Josh Barton
Roar Pro
Even the basics aren't right at the moment. At times last night Victory couldn't even string a couple of passes together without either sending it out of play or coughing it up straight to a Jets player. The Victory team isn't that bad on paper. There are plenty of good players there, they just are playing with no intensity or purpose.
g
Guest
agree
Fadida
Guest
Agree. Big trouble, slow team who lack creativity and discipline
Fadida
Guest
Victory hadn't got out of their half in the 10 minutes before the sending off.
George K
Roar Pro
Victory are treading down a dangerous path if they continue to perform like this. I get that they were in a similar position last year and placed 2nd but even so as much as Muscat claims 'referee consistency' Miligan's red suggests deeper issues. I understand that it is still early in the season but surely people would be having questions at this point??
Josh Barton
Roar Pro
In those first ten minutes, I thought Victory were going to give the Jets a walloping. The Jets seemed to be stretched at the back and Victory had all of the ball and were looking dangerous. However, just before the equalizer Jets suddenly transformed into a different team, with every pass direct and incisive and they pushed so many numbers forward so quickly Victory got overwhelmed at the back. It was such a stark contrast to the slow ponderous play Victory were producing. I think that even without the red card, Jets still would have won. If they can remove those weak phases from their game they will be genuine title contenders.
Kangajets
Guest
Terrific to see the jets win comfortably without Roy o Donovan. Petratos was exciting again . Champness continues to impress . The jets concede inside the first 10 minutes for the 6 th time this season . The victory look slow and don’t seem to have someone to grab the game by the scruff of the neck . It’s bizarre to me that they lets players like Nabbout and Georgievski leave . The crowd of 8000 for a Thursday night was ok The next home game against Melbourne City on a Saturday night should see 13000 at least .