FFA Cup: Newcastle Jets thrash Edgeworth 5-1
Former A-League star Daniel McBreen scored one of the great FFA Cup goals but it was one of the few highlights for Edgeworth Eagles as they were ruthlessly taken apart by the Jets.
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In the end the Jets soared comfortably higher than the Eagles and carried away the dreams of an FFA Cup shock in the Hunter Valley.
Newcastle are into the last eight of the FFA Cup for the first time thanks to a ruthlessly efficient dismemberment of Edgeworth Eagles, easing to a 5-1 victory despite one spectacular strike from the oldest Eagle of all.
For all that 4297 fans packed into Edgeworth’s Jack McLoughlin Oval, it never felt likely to go down as the scene of an upset. Amid a derby atmosphere more hospitable than hostile, Newcastle set about making themselves at home from the start.
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It’s hard to take too much evidence from the opposition provided by an understrength NPL side, but still the Jets offered solid proof that they will once more be an A-League force this season.
The pace and movement of Abdiel Arroyo will discomfort every defence, and if there are slight question marks over his finishing, the Panamanian striker had no trouble turning in Nick Fitzgerald’s low cross for a simple opening goal.
Arroyo could have had a hat-trick by the break, denied at his feet by goalkeeper Josh Low and hitting the post with a header, amid a blizzard of attacks from the visitors.
At their heart, not surprisingly, were the twinkling feet of Wes Hoolahan, once of the EPL but making his Australian debut in a suburb of Lake Macquarie.
Time and again he and Dimitri Petratos fizzed the ball around the Edgeworth box, and on 38 minutes Hoolahan took advantage of his own miskick to drive home Newcastle’s second from just inside the box.
It really was one-way traffic, but for a brief period the Edgeworth fans had dared to dream.
Out of nowhere came a thunderbolt strike from Daniel McBreen on 16 minutes that restored parity and rolled back the years for a 42-year-old counting down the minutes left in his career.
Six years ago McBreen won the A-League’s Golden Boot, but few of his strikes that year would better the 20m snap shot with which he caught Jets goalkeeper Lewis Italiano dallying just off his line. In most cases Italiano’s positioning wouldn’t have mattered, but here the ball swerved over him and into the top corner.
As setbacks go, though, it proved a very temporary annoyance for the visitors whose peppering of the Edgeworth goal resumed immediately. Rather softly they were awarded a penalty for Sam Maxwell’s challenge on Matt Millar, and Petratos drove the spot kick into the top corner.
The shame for Edgeworth was the feeling that the contest was already decided by halftime.
Shorn of some half a dozen first teamers through suspension, injury and work commitments – the captain, Josh Evans, is away on manoeuvres with the RAAF in the US – the Eagles were too often chasing shadows.
On the hour Nick Fitzgerald’s slick finish completed a slick build up, and Arroyo’s shot deflected in off Petratos to emphasise the gap in class.