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27Jan24
Late Zawada Winner Sees Wellington Extend League Lead
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix opened up a two-point lead in the Isuzu Ute A-League on 27 January, a late strike from substitute Oskar Zawada clinching a 2-1 victory over Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium after the home team had drawn level ten minutes from time.
The visitors came close to opening the scoring inside the first thirty seconds of the contest, Sam Sutton rattling the side-netting after Mohamed Al-Taay, Costa Barbarouses and the overlapping Nick Pennington had combined to open up Newcastle's left flank, the wing-back's wicked low cross through the goal area nearly being turned into their own net by two retreating defenders before Sutton swooped beyond the far post.
Ninety seconds later, Barbarouses raced onto a ball over the top from Scott Wootton, but lost control of it in Newcastle's penalty area. David Ball picked up the pieces, but was swiftly felled by Mark Natta's mistimed challenge, prompting referee Casey Reibelt to point to the penalty spot, from where Alex Rufer duly opened the scoring after an unnecessary and needlessly time-consuming VAR check.
The home team first threatened Wellington's goal in the eleventh minute, but only because Alex Paulsen misjudged a bouncing ball. Pennington got his 'keeper out of jail, but his headed clearance landed at the feet of Kosta Grozos, who unleashed a dipping twenty-five yard volley which the well-positioned figure of Wootton - on the line - headed clear via the underside of the crossbar.
Wellington counter-attacked instantly, with Barbarouses racing through on goal, only to see his effort blocked by the legs of Ryan Scott, whose opposite number was called into action seconds later, Paulsen diverting a Daniel Wilmering header to safety after the striker had been picked out by Dane Ingham's angled cross.
Back came Wellington in what was an action-packed opening quarter hour, with Ball sending Barbarouses to the by-line, from where he pulled the ball back to Rufer. He wriggled through a couple of challenges at the top of the penalty area before setting up Bozhidar Kraev, whose fierce drive was tipped away well by Scott.
From this point, things went from feast to famine action-wise, with just four events of note taking place throughout the remainder of the half, with two of them in first half stoppage time as the teams rather cancelled each other out, in stark contrast to the hugely entertaining opening stanza!
The first of these openings, from Pennington's nineteenth minute corner, saw Ingham direct a headed clearance onto the roof of his own net. Newcastle eventually responded via Grozos, whose dipping thirty-five yard shot on the run was turned away to his left by Paulsen.
Stoppage time saw Al-Taay storming down the right to the by-line on a dazzling seventy yard run. Alas for the midfielder, all his industry was for nought, as after evading Lucas Mauragis, his cross found a Newcastle defender where he had hoped to find a team-mate. This prompted the home team to launch a counter-attack, culminating in a twenty yard shot from Brandon O'Neill which was always going to clear the crossbar.
Newcastle were the better team immediately after the interval, with Al-Taay's timely challenge thwarting Mauragis in the penalty area in the 51st minute. Five minutes later, the former Wellington fullback was marauding down the flank again, and on this occasion his cross was flicked on by Apostolos Stamatelopoulos to Ingham, whose low drive flew across the face of goal.
Still they pressed for an equaliser, Ingham working
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his way down the right in the 58th minute before playing a ball in behind Lukas Kelly-Heald for the benefit of Callum Timmins. He pulled the ball back into the stride of Stamatelopoulos, whose first-time snapshot flew past the near post.
On the hour, a Mauragis corner was cleared to Timmins, who directed a low drive through a crowded goalmouth straight to Paulsen, one of the few times, it should be noted, that he was forced to produce a save in the second spell.
It was his opposite number who had to produce the goods next, as Wellington, having weathered Newcastle's early second half onslaught, decided it was time to pursue a second goal and effectively put this contest to bed.
Ball sent Barbarouses buccaneering through the inside right channel, from where he struck a fierce drive which Scott tipped round the post in the 65th minute. Newcastle's number one then flew to his left to produce a superb save to keep out a Ben Old bullet as it careered through a forest of footballers in the penalty area.
Sutton's resulting corner saw a touch of head tennis from Rufer and Kraev before Ball's glancing header ricocheted off a defender onto the far upright - a real let-off for Newcastle, who survived another scare in the 72nd minute when Old concluded his driving run down the left into the penalty area with a fierce drive which was blocked to safety by the covering figure of Nathan Grimaldi.
A corner resulted, and once again Sutton fired it into the danger zone. Scott punched it out as far as Barbarouses, who delivered a cross to the far post where Ball soared above all-comers, only to see Wilmering block his headed bid to doubled Wellington's lead.
Newcastle were rather hanging on during this stage of the match, and but for Scott cutting out Barbarouses' cross, substitute Zawada would have doubled the visitors' advantage - he was flying through the middle in a desperate attempt to turn the ball home thirteen minutes from time.
The home team responded straight away, Ingham's cross-shot hitting the angle of far post and bar. And with their next attack, they equalised, Wilmering setting up Grozos for a twenty-five yard drive which was diverted past Paulsen at close range by Trent Buhagiar with ten minutes to play.
Within a minute, Newcastle came desperately close to taking the lead. Timmins' cross was headed out by Finn Surman to Buhagiar, who fired across the face of goal. Timmins regained possession, and this time sent a low cross fizzing across the face of goal, beyond Buhagiar, behind whom no one was following in - a let-off for the visitors, who responded in the best manner possible.
With three minutes remaining, Wellington regained the lead. Sutton evaded two challenges on the left before feeding Old, who threaded a ball through for Zawada to capitalise upon. Timing his run through the offside trap to perfection, the striker drew Scott out of goal before lashing the ball past him from ten yards to clinch a 2-1 win for Wellington, who kept Newcastle at bay for the remainder of the contest as the home team strived in vain to score another equaliser.
Newcastle: Scott; Ingham, Grimaldi, Natta (booked, 77), Mauragis (Buhagiar, 67); Grozos, Timmins (Berthomier, 89), O'Neill; Stynes (Goodwin, 46), Stamatelopoulos (booked, 23), Wilmering
Wellington: Paulsen; Surman, Wootton, Kelly-Heald; Pennington (booked, 45), Al-Taay (booked, 43 (Old, 63)), Rufer (booked, 85), Kraev, Sutton; Barbarouses (Van Hattum, 84), Ball (Zawada, 73)
Referee: Casey Reibelt
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