Sydney FC back on winners’ list after a tough week

It wasn’t their best performance, but Sydney FC will be thankful they can put a tough week behind them with a win.

Sydney FC’s Milos Ninkovic celebrates with teammates after scoring against Newcastle yesterday.

It wasn’t their best performance, but Sydney FC will be thankful they can put one of the toughest weeks of the season behind them after returning to the winners’ list against Newcastle yesterday.

Just five days after the disappointment of losing to Melbourne City in the FFA Cup final, the Sky Blues turned in a dominating effort, beating a woeful Jets side 2-0 at McDonald Jones Stadium in front of 8473 spectators.

The visitors took ages to break down the stubborn Jets defence and it required a piece of individual brilliance from Milos Ninkovic to finally break open the game on the hour.

The Serbian magician collected the ball 30m from goal, beat three players then nonchalantly planted the ball into the top right-hand corner of the net. It was his fifth goal of the season and showed why he has been close to the standout player of the season.

Substitute Bernie Ibini all but sealed the game with 11 minutes to go when he added the second.

Sydney coach Graham Arnold said he could not praise his players enough after what they had gone through recently.

“I learned a lot about our players this week,” he said.

“The mental aspect of having to deal with adversity and with travelling twice this week. I had to change players to get fresh legs and minds out there. The boys did fantastic. It wasn’t an easy first half with the heat. The second half I thought was very, very good.”

The win continued Sydney’s unbeaten run in the A-League and sees them jump six points clear at the top of the table after nearest rivals Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory both drew their games.

This was a match Sydney should have won comfortably. They created numerous chances and it was only Jets goalkeeper Jack Duncan’s heroics that prevented the final score from being embarrassing for the hosts.

To be fair, the Jets are a damaged club seriously affected by a number of injuries that have depleted their squad. They had at least six first-team players missing yesterday.

Jets coach Mark Jones launched a passionate defence of his players and took exception to suggestions his side was not in the fight.

“I don’t know about that ... 0-0 v the top side in the competition at half time. I don’t know how that is not being in the fight,” he said.

“It’s just the key moments that let us down. Under pressure, Sydney kept the ball but we couldn’t and you can’t do that with just 37 per cent possession.”

Sydney’s tough schedule of three games in the space of nine days understandably forced Arnold, who has had the luxury of a very settled line-up in the opening eight weeks of the competition, into making the most changes he has had to make for any match this season.

There were four changes to the line-up beaten by Melbourne City in the FFA Cup final last Wednesday — Alex Wilkinson for Matt Jurman, Milos Dimitrijevic for Brandon O'Neill, David Carney for Bobo and George Blackwood for Filip Holosko.

Jurman, O’Neill and Bobo were relegated to the bench while Holosko, who has been out of touch for several weeks, was not in the squad. So it meant that neither of the marquee men — Bobo and Holosko — started the game.

Dimitrijevic at least did his best to convince Arnold that he should be used more often as a starter, providing the few bright moments in what was an insipid contest in the opening 45 minutes.

Newcastle made three changes with Labinot Haliti given his first start of the season in place of Devante Clut, Ben Kantarovski replacing Andy Brennan and Chinese striker Lei Lei Ma also making his starting debut .