Perth Glory delivered a knockout blow to the in-form Newcastle Jets during a Boxing Day demolition at ME Bank Stadium on Saturday evening. Perth packed plenty of punch as they routed the Jets 4-0 to move back into the top six and finals contention.
Perth Glory delivered a knockout blow to the in-form Newcastle Jets during a Boxing Day demolition at ME Bank Stadium on Saturday evening. Perth packed plenty of punch as they routed the Jets 4-0 to move back into the top six and finals contention.
First-half efforts from Naum Sekulovski, Jamie Harnwell and Mile Sterjovski set Glory on their way to their biggest win of the campaign, before Harnwell iced the cake with a stunning fourth after the break.
“It was an important game for us today. All the boys were hurting from some past results and some comments that had been made. They-re a good bunch and I-m happy for the players, the club and the supporters,” Coach Dave Mitchell said.
“As we all know goals change games and it was just a matter of time before we did that. We scored at the right time today and we got the confidence from it.
“It has been a good day today.”
Mitchell made just one change from last week-s starting eleven, with Mile Sterjovski moving up from the bench to replace Victor Sikora who failed to shrug off a thigh injury in time to feature.
Glory set a high tempo right from the outset with Jamie Coyne and Jacob Burns making their presence felt in the middle of the park while both Adriano Pellegrino and Sekulovski prowled down either flank.
It therefore came as no surprise that it was the home side who carved out the first chance of the afternoon on eleven minutes. A sweeping move saw Pellegrino and Harnwell combine to set up Sterjovski, but the marquee man saw his close range effort superbly blocked by former Sorrento goalkeeper Neil Young.
Encouraged by their bright start, Glory continued to pour forward in search of a breakthrough and it arrived courtesy of a stunning Sekulovski free kick. The hard running defender lined up 22 metres from goal and caught the Jets wall and the Newcastle ‘keeper by surprise with a worm burning drive that smashed into the back the net.
The bumper holiday crowd had barely stopped celebrating Sekulovski-s first goal of the campaign when Glory doubled their advantage in superb style.
This time the attack came down the left flank where Sterjovski left Newcastle defender Ljubo Milicevic chasing shadows before curling in a teasing low cross which was met by Harnwell. The big striker positioned himself superbly in front of former Glory man Nikolai Topor-Stanley and pumped directed it neatly into the goal.
A shell-shocked Jets side seemingly had no answer to Glory-s high-energy attacking style and the afternoon got worse for the visitors ten minutes before the break when Glory grabbed a third.
Todd Howarth-s clever reverse pass for Sterjovski was too cute for Milicevic who hauled the Socceroo back as he prepared to pull the trigger, leaving referee Ben Williams no alternative but to point to the spot. Sterjovski dusted himself off and calmly sent Young the wrong way to bag his fifth goal of the campaign and cap an imperious first-half display by the home side.
Culina made two changes at the break in a bid to spark his struggling side into life and they did briefly threaten with Adam D-Apuzzo forcing Tando Velaphi to make his first meaningful save of the game on 51 minutes.
Any prospect of a comeback from the visitors, however, evaporated altogether midway through the second-half when Harnwell claimed his second and Glory-s fourth.
Scott Neville the provider as he whipped in a superb cross to which Harnwell soared above his marker and power a textbook header into the roof of the net.
“We-ve all been feeling a little bit of pressure but knew we had the quality in there.,” said Harnwell.
“I-ve been sitting on the outside for a while this season and waiting for this sort of big break through game and hopefully that-s what it is for the whole team. We can show what we can do and now we can go on with it.
“The spirit has always been good within the team. Training is always upbeat, it-s a good tempo but obviously that hasn-t shown on the pitch in the past couple of weeks. We started well today and everyone just fed off each other its one of those things where the ball starts rolling.
“There has never been any problem with the spirit in the team and today we actually went out and showed what we were all about so that was really pleasing,” Harnwell said.
The under-worked Velaphi retained his concentration sufficiently to keep out a well-struck free-kick from the tireless Jin-Hyung Song moments later, but as the Jets threw men forward in a bid to salvage something from the game they left themselves understaffed at the back and Glory constantly threatened to add to their tally on the break.
Jimmy Downey, Scott Bulloch and Andrija Jukic all looked lively when introduced from the bench late on, carving out several half-chances between them, but were unable to find the fifth goal that Glory-s dominance warranted.
“Hopefully that (result) will settle a lot of people down outside the club that have been throwing darts,” Mitchell said
“It was a positive step forward but we-re not getting carried away, you know the old saying, ‘take it one game at a time-. We-ll have a good recovery session tomorrow, look to the New Year and take a bit of confidence out the result.”
Hyundai A-League 2009/10 – Round 21
Perth Glory 4(Naum Sekulovski 19-, Jamie Harnwell 24- & 69-, Mile Sterjovski (pen) 36-)
Newcastle Jets 0
Saturday, 26 December 2009 at ME Bank Stadium, Perth
Crowd: 9418
Referee: Ben Williams
Perth Glory: 1.Tando VELAPHI (gk), 3.Jamie COYNE, 4.Andy TODD, 5.Jamie HARNWELL (13.Scott BULLOCH 83-), 6.Chris COYNE, 7.Jacob BURNS (c), 12.Scott NEVILLE (23.Andrija JUKIC 76-) 16.Adriano PELLEGRINO (2.Jimmy DOWNEY 76-), 17.Todd HOWARTH, 19.Naum SEKULOVSKI, 21.Mile STERJOVSKI
Substitutes not used: 20.Aleks VRTESKI (gk),
Yellow cards:
Red cards:
Newcastle Jets: 20.Neil YOUNG (gk), 3.Adam D-APUZZO (9.Sasho PETROVSKI 67-), 4.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, 5.Ljubo MILICEVIC, 6.Ben KANTAROVSKI, 7.Jin-Hyung SONG, 8.Matt THOMPSON (c), 11.Tarek ELRICH (26.Ali ABBAS 46-), 12.Jobe WHEELHOUSE, 15.Sean ROONEY, 25.Labinot HALITI (22.Kaz PATAFTA 46-)
Substitutes not used: 1.Ben KENNEDY (gk),
Yellow cards: Nikolai Topor-Stanley 45-, Lubo Miliceivc 56-
Red cards:
