GOAL.COM
By Chris Paraskevas
Rumoured want-away Jets captain Jade North marked his return to the Newcastle side with a sensational 95th minute equaliser in a pulsating 3-3 draw with the Perth Glory at Members Equity Stadium this evening. The Glory came from behind twice during the match, with new signings Adrian Trinidad and Eugene Dadi both scoring for the home side and 34-year-old former Brazil international Amaral producing a man-of-the-match performance in midfield.
Despite parading a new-found attacking flair throughout the match, Dave Mitchell’s Perth outfit were repeatedly caught square by a mobile Newcastle Jets forward-line, with the Glory inexplicably playing an extremely high defensive line despite a conspicuous lack of pace at the back.
Newcastle manager Gary Van Egmond will contrastingly be disappointed that his side twice threw away the lead, after initially going ahead through a dubious Joel Griffiths penalty on 19 minutes, before Argentine Adrian Trinidad also equalized for Perth via the penalty spot. The Jets retook the lead in the second-half when Song’s strike from inside the box took a cruel deflection off Jamie Coyne but the Glory again responded through a superbly constructed Eugene Dadi goal. Nikita Rukavytsya – who had just returned from Olyroos duty in Beijing – came off the bench to give the Glory the lead for the first time in the match with nine minutes of normal time remaining but North’s dramatic last-gasp equaliser secured a point for the defending champions.
Fortuitous
Despite a positive start to the match by the Glory, with A-League debutant Adrian Trinidad looking sharp up front and former Parma and Fiorentina midfielder Amaral increasingly comfortable in possession, it would be the Jets who would take the lead after the somewhat fortuitous award of a penalty by referee Craig Zetter.
Tarek Elrich took possession in his own half before producing a superbly weighted through-ball in-behind a square Perth defence. Joel Griffiths ghosted in from the right-hand touchline with Olyroo Nikolai Topor-Stanley ball-watching at left-back and last year’s Johnny Warren medallist advanced on the penalty area before being tripped up just outside the box by Dino Djulbic.
Griffiths’ pace had just taken him away from the Glory center-back, with his momentum carrying him into the penalty area, perhaps creating the impression that he had been brought down inside the 18-yard box. Zetter showed little hesitation in pointing to the spot and Griffiths calmly slid his penalty into the bottom left-hand corner of the net, sending veteran goalkeeper Frank Juric the wrong way to give the Jets a 19th minute 1-0 lead.
It would take the Glory just 16 minutes to respond, however, with a penalty of their own, awarded under more conspicuous circumstances. A Mark Lee corner was met by an unmarked Topor-Stanley, whose header was saved by the feet of Ante Covic. Just as former PLUS FC striker Trinidad was about to pounced on the loose ball, he had his trailing leg crudely obstructed by a ‘two-footed’ Adam Griffiths tackle, with Zetter immediately awarding a penalty. Adrian Trinidad confidently dispatched his spot-kick into the bottom right-hand corner of the net with Covic statuesque to make it 1-1, whilst also attempting to encourage the 8,876 Glory fans as he picked the ball out of the net and sprinted eagerly back to half-way for the restart.
The Glory almost conceded immediately afterwards though, when in the 37th minute Newcastle’s marquee loan signing Edmundo Zura delivered a superb cross from the right-hand side that found Song at the far-post. The South Korean turned his marker brilliantly before driving a low shot at goal from a narrow angle. Though Juric did well to palm the ball away from goal, Dino Djulbic almost scored a bizarre own goal when he diverted the ball into the side-netting under no pressure.
Helpless
There was to be no such luck for the home side just three minutes after half-time however, as Adam Griffiths knocked down a hopeful ball into the Perth penalty box for brother Joel, who did well to lay the ball off for team-mate Song. The energetic midfielder saw his shot deflect off Perth captain Jamie Coyne, trickling agonisingly past an already committed and utterly helpless Frank Juric in the Glory goal.
This time it would only take Perth ten minutes to conjure up an equaliser, with all three of David Mitchell’s foreign signings combining superbly to make it 2-2. The move started infield with Trinidad, whose first-time chipped ball was perfectly weighted for an unmarked Amaral on the right-hand flank. The Brazilian produced a wonderful cross on the half-volley from the touch-line, which found Dadi in the box. The Cote D’Ivoire striker produced a powerful header which flew past Covic and crashed into the back of the net.
The introduction of Ukrainian-born Olyroo Nikita Rukavytsya for Mark Lee was almost the catalyst for an unlikely Perth victory, as the striker gave the home side the lead inside the last ten minutes of the match. Australian youth international Adriano Pellegrino capitalised on a Tarek Elrich mistake on half-way, releasing Rukavytsya with a first-time through ball. The striker raced away from Griffiths, entering the penalty box and calmly slotting the ball inside Ante Covic’s near-post to make it 3-2 on 81’ minutes.
Elrich came within centimetres of redeeming himself in the 87th minute though, as he unleashed a superb swerving strike from outside the penalty area that missed the top left-hand corner of Juric’s goal by inches.
Rescue Attempt
The Jets, who two seasons ago grabbed a dramatic last-minute equaliser in Perth that set them on their way to an unlikely finals appearance, again rescued a point deep into injury time on Australia’s west coast, with an the equaliser was simple in execution but dramatic on so many other levels.
Initially, Amaral was attempting to waste time in the final minute of the allotted four minutes of injury-time inside the Jets’ half. A minor scuffle resulted between some of the Jets and Glory players and with some of the Perth men out of position, an innocuous long-ball was booted up-field from the resulting free-kick.
Topor-Stanley rose to challenge for the ball but only succeeded in flicking it backwards and into the path of Newcastle center-back Jade North, who had been spending the latter part of the match as a makeshift striker. North has been heavily linked with a move to Europe following his performances as an over-age player with the Olyroos in Beijing and had produced an uncharacteristically indifferent performance for his side in Perth but latched onto Stanley’s unintentional flick, shrugging off the intentions of Coyne before rolling the ball past an advancing Juric and just inside the keeper’s left-hand post for the most dramatic of 95’ minute finishes to a refreshingly enthralling game of football.
Perth Glory 3 (Trinidad 35’, Dadi 58’, Rukavytsya 81’)
Newcastle Jets 3 (Griffiths 19’, Song 48’, North 95’)
Line-ups:
Perth Glory: (4-4-2) Juric, Doyle (66’ Harnwell), Djulbic, Coyne, Topor-Stanley, Bulloch, Pellegrino, Amaral, Lee (71’ Rukavytsya), Trinidad, Dadi (85’ Rizzo)
Newcastle Jets: (4-3-3) Covic, Elrich, A. Griffiths, North, D’Apuzzo, Holland, Wheelhouse (70’ Spencer), Song, J. Griffiths, Zura (80’ Patafta), Thompson
Article source http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=829980
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