Newcastle Jets 0 Western Sydney Wanderers 3
Support : 8000 Western Sydney fans made the journey north. Photo: Getty Images
The first stage of the miracle from Western Sydney is officially complete after the Wanderers emphatically hammered the Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium to claim the Premiers Plate.
Roared on by almost 10,000 fans who had driven up the F3, the Wanderers went ahead thanks to a first-half brace from Mark Bridge. There could be no more fitting player to make the difference than Bridge, who was born and raised in Penrith.
Mark Bridge of the Wanderers is challenged by Joshua Brillante of the Jets. Photo: Getty Images
Just to put an exclamation mark on proceedings, Rocky Visconte's 80th-minute bullet was a beautiful strike that capped a faultless team display. The win takes the Wanderers six points clear of Central Coast and puts them on 18 wins for the entire season, equal with the record set by Brisbane Roar when they won the championship in 2010-11.
For a club that didn't exist a year ago - and began being assembled only three months before the season - it goes down as one of the greatest accomplishments of Australian sport. Their next challenge is to win their next two finals matches, a feat that would make them overall champions.
The loss rules Newcastle out of finals calculations, which is good news for Sydney FC. Now the Sky Blues will focus all their attention on Saturday night's clash in Perth, where the Glory only need a win against Adelaide to take their place in the top six.
While a season-high crowd of 22,518 packed into the stadium - the third-biggest in Newcastle's A-League history - it looked and felt like a Wanderers home game. When the visiting fans found their place at the north-east corner of the stadium, they swallowed up 10 bays of the Andrew Johns Stand. Their noise certainly swallowed up anything the home fans could manage.
Aaron Mooy failed a late fitness test, paving the way for Wanderers youngster Yianni Perkatis to make his season debut alongside Mateo Poljak in defensive midfield. However, captain Michael Beauchamp was passed fit to play and resumed in central defence.
Youssouf Hersi returned on the right of midfield after a one-game suspension, while Shannon Cole took the injured Adam D'Apuzzo's place and Jerome Polenz's four-game ban meant Tarek Elrich was one of five former Jets turning out for the Wanderers.
As fate would have it, Elrich would have a hand in the opening goal - as would two other former Jets. His cross-field pass to Labinot Haliti was ambitious, but the forward, playing wide on the left, showed great touch to clip the ball across goal. Dino Kresinger's air-swing didn't deter Mark Bridge, who tapped home his 10th goal of the season.
Afterwards, the Wanderers' pressure only intensified, and Tony Popovic willed his team to keep pressing the Jets higher and higher up the pitch. The home side regularly had trouble playing its way out of defence because the swarm of red-and-white shirts would close down every player once the initial pass was made.
A second goal seemed inevitable and Bridge - a hero in Newcastle for scoring the winning goal in the 2008 grand final - was the man to provide it. He read Kresinger's flick-on header and while he never quite controlled the ball, he kept it moving forward and managed to force it over Mark Birighitti.
After a month on the sidelines, the frustration at seeing their season slip away was too much for Emile Heskey, who picked up a yellow for barging through Ante Covic then giving the goalkeeper a mouthful. By half-time, the Wanderers knew the league title was sewn up and Kresinger raised his fist triumphantly towards the supporters as he headed into the dressing room.
The second half seemed to lack intensity, especially from the Jets' perspective. They plugged away in patches but scarcely gave Popovic any reason as his team sat back and absorbed the pressure.
In their only real chance, a header from Wanderers defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley's header fell into space for Adam Taggart but his effort hit the post and bounced out.
Nobody would be spoiling the Wanderers' party, which looked set to kick on well into the night after Visconte - who had only just come on as a substitute in the minutes before - speared home his drive from distance.
WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS 3 (Mark Bridge 6m, 33m, Rocky Visconte 80m) bt NEWCASTLE JETS 0 at Hunter Stadium. Crowd: 22,518. Referee: Ben Williams.
No comments:
Post a Comment