Newcastle Jets travelled to Parramatta to face the Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday afternoon where both teams came away with a point in a dramatic, topsy-turvey game with 6 goals and two red cards with the Wanderers Captain Marcelo scoring a late equaliser to earn the draw.
Western Sydney's injury woes continued, and once again it was the goalkeepers needing a reshuffle. Lawrence Thomas suffered an ankle injury during training late in the week, and with Daniel Margush suffering from concussuion and Jack Gibson out for the season with an ACL injury, it was left to the 18 year new signing Taiga Harper to stand in the sticks.
Unfortunately for Harper it took only 4 minutes for him to take centre stage for the wrong reasons. Shortly after he came out of his area to sweep up a long ball, the Wanderers won the ball back and instead of going forward, Jorritt Hendrix went backward to Marcelo and he went back to Harper. The first time ball back from Harper was wayward, missing Marcelo and ending up with Trent Buhagiar, a mistake that let the Jets striker shoot first time wit Harper scrambling back to the near post. He wasn't quick enough & Harper was caught out, being able to block the shot at goal but only so far as to knock it into the goal to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The Wanderers hit back on the half-hour mark. Newcastle went away from their usual long ball strategy, Brandon O'Neill pinging a pointless cross-field free kick that was anticipated and stolen by Jack Clisby. The fullback found Alex Badolato, he turned inside with a spin move that beat Dane Ingham and gave him enough room to lay the ball off. Lachie Brook was making a trademark late run into the box and his sterling silver left foot hit a laser into the top corner to level the scores.
Brook had a brace, and the Wanderers the lead 5 minutes later. The Jets gambled and lost playing out from the back on the right flank, letting the Wanderers attack work a trio of passes that ended with a heavy shot from Badolato. Ryan Scott in the Jets goal was able to block it away but not out for a corner and it proved fatal. Milanovic pounced on the rebound and dinked a chipped cross to the edge of the 6 yard box and right in front, the defence couldn't scramble to respond and it gave Brook a clean free header and he gave Scott no chance for a second save. It was 2 goals in 3 minutes for Brook, his 6th & 7th goals in the A-League season.
Tate Russell had been given a warning about his tackling in the first half when he was yellow carded for hitting a Jets player in the thigh with his boots, and 30 seconds into the second half he was off. From the kick-off the Jets worked their way down the right flank, a cross came in that bounced away to the far sideline. Former Wanderers fullback Daniel Wilmering and Russell collided inside the box, and eventually the game was stopped and VAR called into action. Replays showed Russell had trod on the back of Wilmering, a clear penalty and yellow card, which was his second and followed by a red. Apostolos Stamatelopoulos stepped up to take the penalty and he beat Harper despite him going the right way.
Newcastle used their man advantage to take a 3-1 lead in the 70th minute. A simple left wing cross from Lucas Mauragis into the middle of the area wasn't dealt with by the Wanderers defence and it gave Stamatelopoulos an easy header that he couldn't miss, giving him his second of the game.
Brook had a chance to pull the game back to 3-3, Mark Natta dwelt on the ball far too long, had the ball stolen away by Brandon Borrello in his first match since his foot injury. Borrello found Brook to put him in on goal, Brook shot from the edge of the area but it was weak and aimed straight at the Jets keeper. Sonny Kittel made his debut with his 85th minute substitution along with Dylan Scicluna.
At every set piece this season Marcelo has been the target for the Wanderers crosses, and in the first minute of stoppage time he rose above everyone in the box and hammered it past Scott and the defender on the line to pull the match back to a breathless 3-3.
With minutes left in stoppage time the Wanderers went down to 9 men and setup a huge gap in their central defence for next weekend. With the Jets threatening inside the Wanderers half Hendrix made an ill-timed slide tackle that caught his opponent studs up in the ankle. Thankfully the Jets weren't able to take advantage, wasting two late corners in a row with Kosta Grozos being unable to beat the first man at the near post. Post-game there were fireworks but not from Marko Rudan, instead the Wanderers highest profile owner Paul Lederer had made his way onto the pitch to berate the match official Shaun Evans as he made his way down the tunnel.
All in all it was a fitting end to what has been described as the most "Peak A-League" round in the history of competition, 25 goals scored, multiple red cards and some horrendous misses. The draw means that Western Sydney will remain in the top 6 at least for next week with 25 points as Melbourne City & Brisbane Roar lead the chasing pack on 21 points.
The Wanderers next match is against the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford on Sunday the 18th of February with kick-off at 5:00pm.
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