Melbourne City’s Bruno Fornaroli scores double as Jets downed

Melbourne City’s Bruno Fornaroli has again shown his attacking mastery, scoring a double against Newcastle Jets.

Melbourne City’s Bruno Fornaroli celebrates scoring his second goal against Newcastle at AAMI Park last night.

Bruno Fornaroli has once again displayed his freakish ability to find the back of the net, scoring a stunning double in Melbourne City’s victory over Newcastle Jets last night.

The Uruguayan ace struck a first-half double to keep the game at arm’s length from the Jets, who replied through Andrew Nabbout but couldn’t find a late equaliser.

John van’t Schip’s side jumped to second on the table on the back of the 29-year-old Fornaroli’s goals, which lifted his tally to six from six games this season. At the current rate, he could better his record tally of 25 goals in 29 games last season.

Fornaroli’s goals were fashioned on the left and the right flanks, and finished by head and foot.

Tricky winger Fernando Brandan charged inside with pace but slowed the speed of the ball, deftly chipping into Fornaroli’s path. The Uruguayan nodded the ball to the near post, where Jets goalkeeper Jack Duncan could only palm it into the net.

Shortly after, he unleashed a textbook right-foot volley from Bruce Kamau’s cross to double his tally.

But Newcastle began to create chances of their own and it soon paid off. Ex-Melbourne Victory winger Nabbout, playing on his old home ground, skipped past Osama Malik and unleashed a strike that flew in with a healthy deflection from Michael Jakobsen.

The stage was set for a showstopping second half but instead the action dried up.

Audacious acrobatic efforts from the otherwise quiet Tim Cahill and Morten Nordstrand — who had missed a sitter from 2m out after just four minutes — were the brightest moments of the second period.

Newcastle made all three substitutes in an effort to unlock City’s defence, but it served only to leave them a player down when captain Nigel Boogaard went down with a nasty leg injury.

To worsen the disadvantage, City played with 12 men momentarily after referee Adam Fielding allowed Paulo Retre and Nick Fitzgerald to run on with only Brandan departing.

Eventually a smiling Cahill took his leave with five minutes to go, as City saw out the match.

Van’t Schip said his side maintained a hand on the wheel.

“Overall we controlled the game,” he said.

“We could have scored more if we were a bit more precise and a bit more eager in the first third ... overall I think again a step in the right direction.”

Beaten coach Mark Jones said his side “should have got a result”, lamenting two moments of defensive failure.

“We didn’t take our opportunities and I thought we were very naive again,” he said.

“We got beaten one-on-one, both our fullbacks, gave them too much time to select their pass and gave them two goals.”

AAP