Newcastle Jets pay the penalty for faulty radar against Adelaide

Last season’s beaten grand finalists continue to struggle after a late penalty saw them fall 2-1 to Adelaide United.

Nikola Mileusnic scores in the first half for Adelaide United after the ball ricochets from the goalpost onto Jets keeper Glen Moss. Picture: AAP

Can the Newcastle Jet’s season get any worse?

Last season season’s beaten grand finalists continue to struggle after a late penalty saw them fall 2-1 to Adelaide United at McDonald Jones Stadium.

Having dominated the game, the home side were punished for the lack of quality finishing when United’s Craig Goodwin slotted home a spot kick to claim all three points after Jets skipper Nigel Boogaard’s clumsy tackle on Ryan Kitto.

It’s not difficult to pinpoint just where the Jets are going wrong if you look at the comparisons between their successful start last season and now.

After 10 matches in 2017 they had won six of their games and scored 23 goals.

This season they have managed just three wins and scored 13 fewer goals.

Jets coach Ernie Merrick was correct in suggesting his team are shooting themselves in the foot through their inability to convert the myriad chances into goals.

“As I walked down the corridor to here I thought ‘am I going to say the same thing over and over?’ ... all these shots and we lose the game,” Merrick said.

“But, they then score against the run of play with a nothing goal.

“We had 47 entries into their box and they had 18 into ours and we had 27 shots to their 13.

“Then the penalty, that’s the story of our lives.”

Having squandered a plethora of chances in both halves, Newcastle finally got themselves back on even terms with 15 minutes left when Roy O’Donovan’s headed goal cancelled out Nikola Mileusnic’s 38th minute goal

This will be a tough result for the Jets to take as it cost them the chance to jump into sixth spot. Instead they now find themselves three points outside a finals spot.

For United, this was an important win, helping to cement their spot in the six. They had to do it tough as coach Marco Kurz explained.

“We are happy and I am proud of the boys because we had a short break between games, we played four days ago. We played in heat then had to travel all the way here and came here and played in more heat,” Kurz said. “It was very hard for the boys.

“But, they did very well to come back after they (the Jets) equalised.”

The Jets would have been kicking themselves going into the break a goal down after having the better of the first 45 minutes and creating a number of chances against a side that was prepared to sit back and hit on the counter.

With Dimi Petratos finding loads of space down the right flank and Daniel Georgievski also causing problems down the left, Newcastle certainly looked the more likely to score.

Adelaide had barely made any inroads into the Jets final third but found themselves a goal up in the 38th minute against the run of play.

Defender Ryan Strain sent a long ball from inside his own half towards Ben Halloran, who managed to get in front of his marker.

The former Socceroo attempted to chip goalkeeper Glen Moss, who appeared caught in two minds as to whether to come out or stay on his line.

In the end, he did neither as Halloran’s chip struck the right post before hitting Moss on the body and falling for Mileusnic who had the simplest of tap ins.

However, there was no denying the home side or O’Donovan on 75 minutes when the Irishman headed home at the far post after a great cross from Kane Sheppard.