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17Mar18
Wellington Pay Price For Profligate Finishing
by Jeremy Ruane
Newcastle Jets closed to within five points of the Hyundai A-League lead at QBE Stadium on March 17, but they were fortunate to eke out a 1-0 win over a Wellington Phoenix side producing their best display in many a month.
On another night, Wellington would have scored at least six goals. The number of chances they butchered in this match was criminal! And they paid the price for their profligacy before a disbelieving crowd of 4,672 fans, although it looked to be far greater than that!
Wellington were first to settle, Sarpreet Singh releasing Nathan Burns in the seventh minute. The striker took full advantage of Roy Krishna's supporting run outside him - it drew at least one defender away from Burns - to check inside and lash a shot goalwards, one to which Jack Duncan proved equal.
Newcastle quickly settled into their stride after this, Riley McGree's teasing cross being plucked off the head of Joseph Champness by Tando Velaphi, who grabbed Dimitri Petratos' driven free-kick from the left flank under his crossbar at the second attempt in the fourteenth minute.
Wellington swiftly countered, Thomas Doyle and Goran Paracki combining to send Burns buccaneering in off the left flank on the quarter hour. Duncan blocked this one-on-one opportunity well, then looked on as his defenders stifled Singh's progress as he looked to get on the end of a cross from Burns, who looked offside upon receipt of Scott Galloway's through ball in the sixteenth minute.
Back came Newcastle, Patricio Rodriguez and Champness combining to release Petratos, only for his cross to zoom across the face of Wellington's goal, much like Singh's delivery at Newcastle's end of the ground in the 23rd minute, much to the chagrin of Krishna and Burns, who were both within two strides of being perfectly placed to turn the ball home.
After Lachlan Jackson's shot on the turn had been deflected to safety on the half-hour, following Champness' knock-down of Petratos' corner, Dylan Fox intercepted a Newcastle pass and sent Krishna forward on a bullocking run which culminated in his drawing a save from Duncan ten minutes before half-time.
Four minutes later, a tantalising Petratos cross intended for Rodriguez was cut out by Galloway, but when Newcastle attacked again two minutes before half-time, they silenced the natives with the goal which ultimately decided the contest.
Two delightful pieces of skill from Petratos and Rodriguez evaded challenges and made the move possible, with Jason Hoffman's overlapping run down the right allowing him to charge into the penalty area.
His first shot was blocked by a defender, while Rodriguez was in the way of his second attempt. But it was third time lucky for the marauding fullback, Hoffman's piledriver proving too hot for Velaphi to handle in the shadows of the half-time whistle.
With Wellington reeling from this blow, the visitors sought a second goal before the break, with Liberato Cacace's efforts frustrating both Champness and Rodriguez as they bid to double Newcastle's lead.
The visitors swiftly found themselves under the cosh in the second half, as the bottom-placed set about the task of levelling the scores, something they should have done several times over.
Just two minutes after play had resumed, Singh won possession in midfield and surged forward before playing in Krishna, whose shot drew a diving save
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from Duncan.
After Velaphi had grabbed Petratos' twenty-five yarder, Matija Ljujic won the ball on the left five minutes into the second half. He fed Singh, whose through ball sent Krishna racing down the left, from where he delivered a low cross onto the edge of the goal area, in the precise spot where Burns was arriving …
How the striker ended up in the back of the net while the ball struck the advertising hoardings to the left of the target only Burns can explain! It was an inexplicable miss, even more so because technically his first-time, side-footed finish was straight out of the manual, leaving Duncan rooted to the spot without a prayer of saving it.
1-0 it remained, but Wellington were far from done with. Ljujic produced a delicious piece of skill to evade one challenge before drifting past two more prior to unleashing a sizzling twenty yarder which grazed Duncan's right-hand post in the 55th minute.
Three minutes later, Krishna spurned a glorious opportunity to level the scores. Played through the offside trap by Singh, he showed the defence a clean pair of heels before beating Duncan all ends up with his shot … only to see it skid past the same post past which Burns' shot had crept minutes earlier.
The groans of disappointment from the stand spoke volumes. But still they pressed for a leveller. Ljujic's driven low cross from the left, in the 69th minute, begged a finish, but none was supplied, while after Velaphi turned away another effort from the ever-dangerous Petratos, Wellington almost shot themselves in the foot when a move broke down inside their own half.
Petratos was onto the ball in a flash in the 74th minute, and sent substitute Angus Thurgate hurtling through Wellington's spread-eagled defence, with just Velaphi to beat. He looked to have done so, but the 'keeper got a fingertip to his shot to direct the ball against the upright, Doyle dashing back to clear it off the line.
Wellington lay siege to Newcastle's goal inside the final ten minutes, but their concerted bid for an equaliser proved elusive. Liberato Cacace, pushed forward in an attempt to find a way through, had a shot blocked, while Singh saw another effort rebound back to him, inviting him to try again.
This effort went past the post, while Matthew Ridenton sent one blazing over the bar from fifteen yards following a quickly taken free-kick in the 85th minute. Cue an all-out assault on Newcastle's goal in the dying minutes, with a Ridenton corner causing pandemonium in stoppage time.
Fox met it with a firm header which Duncan blocked on the line, under pressure from Krishna. Substitute Andrija Kaludjerovic was onto the rebound in an instant and saw his effort blocked on the line also.
But as he struck his shot, referee Shaun Evans blew his whistle, signalling a foul by Krishna on Duncan, at which point Wellington knew the game was up. Seconds later, it was - a fortuitous win for Newcastle over a Wellington side playing with a freedom not seen in many a month. With better finishing, they'd have won this match, something their former coach, Newcastle's mentor, Ernie Merrick, knows all too well.
Wellington: Velaphi; Galloway (McGlinchey, 67), Fox, Cacace, Doyle; Ridenton, Paracki, Singh, Ljujic (booked, 12) (Kaludjerovic, 81); Krishna, Burns
Newcastle: Duncan; Hoffman, Jackson, Topor-Stanley, Georgievski; Petratos, Ugarkovic, Kantarovski (booked, 24), McGree (Cowburn, 80); Champness (Vargas, 63), Rodriguez (Thurgate, 63)
Referee: Shaun Evans
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