A-League: Newcastle Jets beat Western Sydney Wanderers 2-0
The Wanderers came into their clash with the Jets needing a win to snap a two-game losing streak but it didn’t work out that way. Their cause wasn’t helped when a big penalty shout was turned down.
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The pressure is creeping up on Markus Babbel and Western Sydney after a hat-trick of A-League losses leaves them at risk of sliding out of the top six before the end of the next round.
The Wanderers’ woeful record against Newcastle continued on Saturday night with a 2-0 loss to compound their sharp slide from the summit to a precarious fourth.
It wasn’t without more controversy when a strong second-half penalty appeal fell on deaf ears – a decision that will only compound last week’s loss to Melbourne City.
But in a quintessential game of two halves at McDonald Jones Stadium, Wanderers goalkeeper Daniel Lopar single-handedly kept his side in the first 45 before his side dominated the second stanza, only for super-sub Angus Thurgate to score the Jets’ first and then assist the second for Dimi Petratos.
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PENALTY SHOUT
Kwame Yeboah appealed almost immediately after being felled by Lachlan Jackson just before the hour. VAR Alex King had a look and referee Kurt Ams ran over to the sideline to review the footage, only to call no penalty.
There was a distinct roll of Babbel’s eyes as he shook his head and smiled in disbelief. After all, it had been only a week since a contentious penalty call against his own team cost them a share of the points against Melbourne City and his now-infamous press conference F-bomb got him cited.
The Wanderers had another futile shout moments later on the back of Nikolai Topor-Stanley’s challenge on Yeboah.
LOPAR FIRST-HALF EXHIBITION
If it wasn’t for the GOAT from St. Gallen, the Wanderers might have been down by four goals by halftime.
The Swiss shot-stopper started his masterclass by making himself big to come off better in a one on one with Jason Hoffman.
Lopar saved the day again by racing off his line to deny Nick Fitzgerald, before stopping Abdiel Arroyo with his outstretched foot.
By the time he leapt high to stop a longer-range Fitzgerald effort he’d accounted for all four of the Jets’ shots on target in the opening 39 minutes.
MOSS ON SHOW IN SECOND
That’s not to forget Glen Moss, who perhaps made the save of the match to thwart a 45th-minute Mitch Duke bullet.
The veteran, playing his 243rd A-League game, was at it again after the break with a double save before Duke fired over the bar and stood tall under intense pressure from the visitors.
That Duke shot was Western Sydney’s first on target. Babbel’s attack started fluently and appeared eager to wrest early control, with Yeboah again chosen to lead the line over benched German striker Alexander Meier.
But the pendulum swung almost as soon as Hoffman went through on goal 15 minutes in. But the red and black awoke after the break, herding the Jets back into their own half.
JETS SNAP THE STALEMATE
Despite scoring the winner in the Jets’ last game against Western United, Thurgate was relegated to the bench until just after the hour. But the 19-year-old, dubbed the ‘Port Macquarie Pele’, made his short shift count in the 78th minute. Matt Millar did the build-up work with a driving ball to the back post and Thurgate swivelled before burying his proceeds. In the 86th he helped Petratos seal the deal, capitalising on a sleeping Wanderers defence to break well free and tee up his teammate for a tap-in. For Petratos it’s now four goals and six assists from his past seven games against the Wanderers.
NEWCASTLE JETS 2 (Angus Thurgate 78m, Dimitri Petratos 86m) WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS 0 at McDonald Jones Stadium. Crowd: 9,154. Referee: Kurt Ams