Sydney FC marquee man Alessandro Del Piero takes on Newcastle Jets defender Scott Neville. Picture: Liam Driver Source: The Daily Telegraph
IN the battle of the battlers, Sydney FC were shown to be the A-League’s true stragglers after losing 2-1 to Newcastle tonight.
Coming into this fixture, the two sides had scraped together a combined seven wins in 22 games but it was the Jets who played themselves out of the rut with a determined win at Hunter Sports Stadium.
It was another frustrating affair for Alessandro Del Piero, whose old club Juventus has a runaway lead in the Series A but current club sits bottom of the A-League ladder with just three wins since his arrival.
For Newcastle’s marquee Emile Heskey, Sydney’s defence again provided opportunity and after scoring a crucial goal in their 3-2 win at Sydney in round two, he hit the decisive goal in this fixture.
All three goals were scored in the first half, with Sydney’s inability to climb back in the second stanza again pointing to lethargy and a lack of spark in front of the sticks.
For all of Sydney’s talk of an expansive passing game, it was Newcastle who used skilful interplay to advance the ball, while FC were content to hoof it upfield and rely on the rocket speed of Yairo Yau to latch on to the hopeful lobs.
There was more enterprise from Frank Farina’s men in the second half but no reward.
In front of 17,402 fans – their biggest crowd since they won the A-League title in 2007-08 – the under-fire Jets scored their first win in six starts.
Newcastle hit the lead in the 13th minute when Craig Goodwin struck a curling free kick from the side of the box over Sydney keeper Vedran Janjetovic into the top left corner.
It was the Jets first goal in 286 minutes – their previous goal coming against Melbourne Heart in round eight.
Heskey added a second in the 26th following stubborn attack from James Virgili on the flank, beating Fabio and laying the ball across the face of goal for the Englishman to tap home.
FC midfielder Brett Emerton was subbed off on the half hour after reportedly feeling unwell, replaced by debutant Peter Triantis.
Moments later Del Piero set through Yau, whose first shot was saved by keeper Mark Birighitti but the rebound struck in by the Panamanian.
Ali Abbas went whisker close to equalising eight minutes before the break when volleying a precise cross from Terry Antonis on the side of goal, only for his lunging shot to fly wide.
Del Piero put Yau through again in the 82nd minute but the ensuing shot went wide, and it was to be Sydney’s final good chance.
The second half had begun in near-disaster for the home side when defender Scott Neville’s lobbed pass in the box to Birighitti was intercepted by Ali Abbas, however his attempt on goal was saved.
Sydney then applied serious pressure on the Jets defence, but it was the home side who went closest to scoring the next goal when Ryan Griffiths’ header from a free-kick was excellently saved by a diving Janjetovic.
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