Newcastle Jets substitute Labinot Haliti struck twice in the final five minutes of his team's Hyundai A-League encounter with the bottom-placed New Zealand Knights at EnergyAustralia Stadium on January 13 to clinch a 3-0 victory for the home team, and a return to third place in the competition standings with three rounds remaining. In truth, it was a result the home team's performance scarcely merited. For while they were well worthy of the three points, their generally unconvincing display - save for a splendid twenty-minute flourish in the first half - had the injury-hit Knights combination hoping they could pinch a point they wouldn't have deserved right up until five minutes from time. For despite fielding a revised 3-4-3 formation, the visitors created very little as an attacking unit, something which can't be said of their opponents, once a cagey opening quarter-hour had allowed the combatants to size each other up. Newcastle effectively said, "Enough of this, let's play to our potential", and for the next twenty minutes, they ran rings round the Knights, carving open their defences seemingly at will. Not surprisingly, Nick Carle was at the heart of much that was good in this period, the roving commission he was afforded in this match allowing him to exploit all those nooks and crannies which the visitors least wanted him to expose. After John Tambouras had headed clear a Matt Thompson throw-in intended for Ante Milicic, a probing through ball from Thompson released Vaughan Coveny down the inside right channel on the quarter hour. Glen Moss raced off his line to thwart the All White, and from the resulting short corner, Carle curled in a cross for Milicic which the Knights managed to scramble to safety. A superb defence-splitting pass from Stuart Musialik would have seen Milicic through with the 'keeper to beat but for Tambouras' sixteenth minute interception, while sixty seconds later, Steve Eagleton opened up the visitors' left flank before firing over a cross on the run to the far post. Only a desperate header clear by Noah Hickey denied fellow New Zealand international Coveny from opening the scoring against a club for whom many in his country of birth think he should be playing. The warning signs were there for the Knights, but they failed to heed them, and were duly punished in the nineteenth minute. Carle flighted in a peach of a free-kick onto the edge of the six-yard box, where Milicic swooped to guide a header wide of the uncertain Moss - 1-0, and a suggestion that this would be the first of many for the Jets. Their form over the next fifteen minutes endorsed such thoughts, as they continued to pound away in search of goals. Some fine off-the-ball running by Thompson was rewarded by Musialik's measured through ball, but the midfielder was thwarted by the fine covering play of Darren Bazeley on this occasion. Two minutes later, Carle was directing operations throughout the course of an intricate one-touch move rich in one-twos between himself, Thompson and Musialik, before the number ten unleashed a swerving twenty-five yarder which careered beyond Moss' far post. Tambouras intervened yet again in the 25th minute, as Richard Johnson, Milicic, Carle and Coveny combined to wreak havoc once more, while three minutes later, Coveny scythed inside between two challenges on the left before linking with Thompson. His crossfield ball invited Eagleton to chest the ball into Milicic's path, the shot of the game's lone goalscorer to date deflecting to safety on this occasion. Four minutes on, and Johnson and Thompson linked through the middle, with the latter thwarted by Frank Van Eijs' covering tackle. As things panned out, it was Newcastle's last noteworthy chance of the half, for the Knights, with injury-enforced substitute Josh Maguire now up to the pace of the game, began to make use of his midfield presence to get a foothold in a contest in which, until this point, they had been a distinct second-best. Cole Tinkler's replacement - the youngster succumbed to concussion following a clash of heads with Allan Picken - sprayed a crossfield ball wide to Hickey in the 35th minute, who touched it on to the full-of-running Zenon Caravella. He jinked past Picken before targeting Neil Emblen with his cross, one which Liam Reddy grabbed at the second attempt.

Two minutes later, Caravella and Hickey combined once more, the New Zealand international this time touching the ball into Maguire's path. He hit a rasping, rising thirty-yard screamer at full tilt, and but for a fingertip save from Reddy, the visitors would have been celebrating an equaliser. Just on half-time, a blocked shot by Kris Bright ricocheted wide to Ben Collett, who was later to succumb to a ribcage injury. He picked out Emblen with his cross, the makeshift striker heading the ball on towards Bright, off whose head Reddy plucked the sphere, and ensured the Jets would touch down for refuelling a goal to the good. The bulk of the second spell saw Newcastle patiently probing for openings, but finding all potential channels blocked by a Knights rearguard which was steadfast in its determination to restrict their play-off-chasing opponents as much as possible. Eagleton, Coveny, Johnson and Carle combined in the fiftieth minute for Newcastle, the last-mentioned taking on three opponents before letting fly across the face of goal. The home team came closer still six minutes later, Coveny, Johnson and Musialik teaming up to reward Thompson's fine run, only for the midfielder to undo all the good work by taking on one opponent too many, allowing Moss to smother at his feet. Seconds later, Johnson loomed on the left and touched the ball into the path of the in-full-flight figure of Carle. He surged into the penalty area and went down under the challenge of the chasing Hickey as Carle slipped his shot under the advancing figure of Moss. Emblen was back to clear off the line, meaning it was a case of double the disappointment for the locals, referee Perry Mur turning down Carle's penalty pleas also. The Jets tended to lose their way a little following these forays, which gave the Knights hope that there might be something in this match for them. A couple of long-range efforts in the last twenty minutes from Bazeley, Maguire and substitute Xiaobin Zhang served as warning shots across Newcastle's bows, to which the home team responded with a couple of their own. Moss parried a twenty-five yarder from Picken to safety thirteen minutes from time, while substitute Jobe Wheelhouse thundered a twenty-yarder wide of the mark five minutes later, after Milicic and Thompson had teamed up to good effect. Seven minutes from time, 6862 Novocastrians looked on in disbelief as Maguire clipped a superb ball through for Bright, presenting the striker with a glorious chance to equalise - easily the Knights' best opportunity of the entire encounter. But the youngster made a right dog's breakfast of it, and was made to pay for his profligacy in spectacular fashion just three minutes later. Newcastle's inability to score the goals they sought had led to a fair bit of frustration, with central defender Paul Kohler pushing forward at every opportunity to join the attack, and the talents of substitute Labinot Haliti having been turned to with eleven minutes remaining. The pair combined in style four minutes from time, Kohler playing the ball into Haliti's stride as he stole forward into the Knights' half. Looking up, he spotted Moss off his line, and duly delivered a made-to-measure thirty-yard chip over the back-pedalling goalkeeper's head and just under the bar for a goal of quite breathtaking quality - contrastingly, the striker's shirtless celebrations prompted the game's solitary booking. This made it 2-0, and after Reddy had tipped a long-range free-kick from young Knights' substitute Sam Jasper to safety, Haliti struck once more in stoppage time to rub salt into the visitors' wounds. Carle, Johnson and Milicic combined to release the substitute inside the penalty area, from where Haliti slipped an angled shot across the retreating figure of Tambouras and under the diving Moss into the far corner of the net to seal a win by a 3-0 scoreline which, given Newcastle's failure to make the most of their chances during the bulk of the match, flattered the deserving winners just a little. Newcastle:     Reddy; Kohler, Zelic, Picken; Eagleton, Johnson, Carle, Musialik (Wheelhouse, 71), Thompson (Elrich, 82); Coveny (Haliti, 79 (booked, 85)), Milicic Knights:     Moss; Tambouras, Bazeley, Van Eijs (Zhang, 46); Hickey, Tinkler (Maguire, 26), Caravella, Collett (Jasper, 64); Emblen, Bright, Brockie Referee:     Perry Mur