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060425
Wellington Score Rare Win In Newcastle
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix scored their first win in ten Isuzu Ute A-League matches on April 6, riding their luck as they overcame Newcastle Jets 2-1 at McDonald Jones Stadium to collect just their second haul of three points in 2025.
They were very fortunate to come away with a win in this match, for after enjoying the better of the first half, Giancarlo Italiano's team endured an almighty onslaught from the home team throughout the second spell, to the extent that quite how Newcastle finished the match with just one goal to their name defies logic!
They fair battered Wellington in the second spell, in stark contrast to the first half, during which the visitors held sway, carving out their first opening just 85 seconds into the contest, Costa Barbarouses firing past the post from ten yards on receipt of a Tim Payne cross on the run.
Newcastle responded with a couple of openings before ten minutes had elapsed, with Corban Piper's timely intervention preventing Eli Adams from pouncing on an opening, before Thomas Aquilina headed wide from ten yards on receipt of a cross from Callum Timmins.
After these scares, Wellington held sway, a Barbarouses volley being saved at his near post by Ryan Scott, who was forced to turn a driven Sam Sutton cross around the upright in the sixteenth minute, the fullback having been released by Kazuki Nagasawa's clever back-heeled pass after he had been picked out by Alex Rufer's perceptive pass.
Ten minutes later, Hideki Ishige delivered a free-kick to the far post which Isaac Hughes headed goalwards. Scott parried the effort, then recovered quickly to prevent Piper from prodding home the loose ball.
Seconds later, Payne lobbed the ball into the danger zone for Ishige, who headed it across goal to Nagasawa. His header down invited Barbarouses to unleash a six yard volley which was blocked on the line by Lachlan Rose.
Newcastle scrambled the ball clear, but only as far as Payne, who this time threaded the ball through the defence for Barbarouses to race onto and draw Scott out of goal. The striker fired past the goalkeeper, but also past the far post as the half-hour mark approached.
Four minutes after it, Wellington deservedly opened the scoring. Nagasawa sent Barbarouses buccaneering through the inside left channel, from where he sent the ball arrowing across Scott and into the far corner of the net - 1-0 to the visitors.
Newcastle sought a swift response via a long-range effort from Phillip Cancar which was grabbed under the bar by Josh Oluwayemi - his only save of the half. He instantly launched a counter-attack which saw Matt Sheridan pick out Barbarouses in between two defenders, the striker volleying over from fifteen yards.
Four minutes before the interval, Wellington doubled their lead. Payne and Barbarouses worked a one-two on the right which allowed the fullback to storm forward and deliver a slide-rule pass into the stride of Nagasawa, who steered the ball into the far corner of the net despite Cancar's challenge.
Newcastle were facing the proverbial mountain to climb, but should have halved the deficit on the stroke of half-time. Timmins wriggled through some challenges before feeding Aquilina, whose shot on the turn sizzled inches past the post.
Half-time substitutions were the order of the day for the home side, coach Rob Stanton clearly unhappy with what had been forthcoming from his charges in the first spell. They responded brilliantly to the challenge facing them, however, so much so that Wellington enjoyed just one opportunity of note in the entire second half - a Nagasawa drive from ten yards which sailed over the bar after Barbarouses had done the donkey work.
That aside, it was one-way traffic, and Oluwayemi's goal was the target. The home team first threatened in the 56th minute, Kota Mizunuma picking out Clayton Taylor, whose cross parted the hair of Rose.
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Two minutes later, Mizunuma's cross was volleyed back across goal by Daniel Wilmering to the unmarked Charles M'Mombwa, eight yards out from goal, a position from which he sliced his shot wide of the goal.
Soon after, Taylor sent the ball soaring over the bar from twelve yards after Adams had done Sutton like a kipper on the right and delivered a low cross which begged a finish to match the skill which had preceded it.
Come the 63rd minute, Taylor squandered another opening, steering Wilmering's cross wide from six yards as Newcastle piled on the pressure in their pursuit of two goals, one of which materialised two minutes later, Oluwayemi fumbling the ball over the line under pressure from Aquilina as he failed to adequately deal with Mizunuma's well-flighted corner.
At 2-1, Newcastle had the bit between their teeth, and after Oluwayemi had blocked a Timmins shot to safety following Taylor's enticing pass, the resulting short corner routine resulted in one of the craziest thirty seconds of goalmouth action you're ever likely to see! Mayhem doesn't even begin to do it justice!
Adams picked out M'Mombwa, whose shot was parried by Oluwayemi. The goalkeeper recovered swiftly to block Taylor's follow-up attempt, the rebound from which was latched onto by the same player. This time, Taylor's shot was blocked on the line by Piper, with the ball breaking to Rose.
He unleashed a piledriver which hit Sheridan square amidships - yes, down there! - before Scott Wootton blocked the final shot in this salvo, struck by Timmins, to safety. Quite how Wellington didn't concede the equaliser in this sequence Lord alone knows.
Still Newcastle kept pounding away. Oluwayemi tipped a twenty yard screamer from Timmins over the bar in the 76th minute, while Taylor sent a cross-shot flying narrowly past the post three minutes later.
A tame effort from Rose didn't trouble Oluwayemi soon after, but in the 83rd minute, referee Alireza Faghani got it well wrong when he not only failed to award the home team a penalty, he booked Mizunuma for simulation, even though he was quite clearly tripped by Hughes.
The Video Assistant Referee should have picked this up, but didn't, instead picking up that the Japanese playmaker was marginally offside when he set off in pursuit of Kosta Grozos' ball over the top.
So if the entire move was thwarted by the offside decision, should the booking not be rescinded also? Or is it treated on the same lines as serious foul play in such circumstances? Ask a referee to explain this to you next time you see one.
The brief respite which followed allowed Wellington to mount a rare raid, but Scott, a spectator for the bulk of the second spell, was on his toes, and raced well out of his penalty area to clear the danger posed by the charging Luke Brooke-Smith.
Into stoppage time, and Newcastle's pursuit of an equaliser continued unabated. Piper diverted an Adams cross over his own crossbar, while Hughes' missed headed clearance allowed Alexsandar Susnjar to get in behind him and deliver a volleyed cross which Rose contrived to miss with the goal at his mercy.
The final act of the match saw Adams' angled cross pick out Wellissol, whose diving header was somehow blocked on the line by Oluwayemi, a denial which ensured Wellington would enjoy their first win since mid-January, although it was one their second half display scarcely deserved.
Newcastle: Scott; Cancar (Taylor, 46), Grozos, Susnjar; Mizunuma (booked, 83 (Wellisson, 90)), Timmins, Bayliss (M'Mombwa, 46), Wilmering; Adams, Rose, Aquilina
Wellington: Oluwayemi; Piper, Wootton, Hughes; Payne (booked, 90), Rufer (booked, 53), Sheridan (Retre, 73), Sutton; Ishige (Kelly-Heald, 62), Barbarouses, Nagasawa (Brooke-Smith, 62)
Referee: Alireza Faghani
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