Sydney FC has suffered their third straight defeat on Sunday as they went down 3-1 to the Newcastle Jets in an enthralling match at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Sydney FC has suffered its third straight defeat on Sunday as they went down 3-1 to the Newcastle Jets in an enthralling match at the Sydney Football Stadium.
“We expected a little bit different style (from Newcastle) but our main problem was our style,” said Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka after the match.
“We have to analyse. We-ve lost our last games and it-s disappointing but we don-t give up,” he added.
There was drama from the very first minute when Newcastle-s Jin-Hyung Song was given a yellow card, setting the trend for an eventful match. It proved to be the case as in the first 10 minutes, Sydney-s Rhyan Grant and Terry McFlynn had close shots on goal that just went wide.
It was Newcastle though who looked to have taken the lead after Michael Bridges linked up with a Matthew Thompson header in the 11th minute. But the latter was called offside call by referee Strebre Delovski and the goal was disallowed much to the relief of the home fans.
Sydney had chances in the first half with skipper Steve Corica, back this week from a hamstring injury, positioning the ball through to Grant midway through the first half. But the young midfielder was unable to make the most of the open field, with his shot going straight to the keeper.
Grant-s bad luck continued, as his tackle on Song in the 22nd minute was deemed illegal and led to the visitors being granted a penalty. Bolton couldn-t repeat the heroics from earlier in the season and Bridges slotted home the spot kick to give the visitors the lead.
The visitors looked to extend their lead ten minutes later when a lightning quick counter-attack by Song found Sean Rooney running in space. Bolton came to Sydney-s rescue by unconventionally using his head to save the Jets striker-s attempted chip.It was a case of what might have happened for Sydney late in the first half. The tide looked to have turned in the 36th minute after a breakaway led to Terry McFlynn being well placed in Newcastle-s zone. Once again, the play was not on the Sky Blue-s side, with the Irish midfielder just missing the top left corner.
The Sky Blues pushed hard to equalise before the break with a dangerous cross from McFlynn just missing the sliding Grant in the 38th minute. Brosque had a go two minutes later, making a blistering run in from the left before pulling off a powerful right-foot strike that was inches away from the top right-hand corner.
Sky Blue coach Lavicka opted for an attacking change in the second half, substituting Grant for striker John Aloisi. The change appeared to work and the home team came out firing with an attempt from midfielder Stuart Musialik in the 47th minute. Despite the move however, Newcastle managed to score courtesy of Bridges again in the 51st.
The Newcastle forward linked up again with Thompson, who slid a smart ball through to his teammate. Bridges made no mistake one-on-one with Bolton, leaving Sydney trailing 2-0.
Despite otherwise dominating the first 15 minutes of the second half, Sydney were unable to make any inroads into Newcastle-s lead and in the 58th minute, the combination of Bridges and Thompson proved to be a major thorn in Sydney-s side.
A clever passing play between the two Newcastle strikers and Rooney found Thompson in behind the Sky Blue-s defence. He slipped the ball past Bolton to give his team a 3-0 with only half an hour left.
Sydney looked dangerous as they tried to pull back the deficit and Aloisi looked poised to score. But he was brought down after already beating Kantarovski, who was cautioned for a foul in the 74th minute.
Just a minute later, a cross from Shannon Cole was just touched back by Aloisi into the path of a rampaging Brosque, who tapped the ball home.
It was the highlight of Sydney-s day however as they were unable to convert any more chances for the remainder of the game to go down 3-1.
“Obviously we-re not happy with three losses,” said Corica after the match, “but we-ve still got ten games to go.”
They-ll face North Queensland Fury at the SFS again next Saturday aiming to end their three match losing streak and hoping to stop Robbie Fowler from scoring as he did so spectacularly last time in round six.
Match Detail
Sydney FC 1 (BROSQUE 75′)
Newcastle Jets FC 3 (BRIDGES 24’pen 50′, THOMPSON 58′)
Sydney FC: 1. Clint BOLTON, 3. Stephan KELLER, 4. Simon COLOSIMO, 8. Stuart MUSIALIK, 10. Steve CORICA (c) (7. Brendan GAN 67′), 12. Shannon COLE, 14. Alex BROSQUE, 15. Terry MCFLYNN, 19. Mark BRIDGE, 22. Sung-Hwan BYUN, 23. Rhyan GRANT (9. John Aloisi 46′).
Substitutes not used: 2. Sebastian RYALL, 20. Ivan NECEVSKI (gk).
Yellow Cards: nil.
Red Cards: nil.
Goals: 14. Alex BROSQUE 75′.
Newcastle Jets FC: 4. Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, 5. Ljubo MILICEVIC, 6. Ben KANTAROVSKI, 7. Jin-Hyung SONG, 8. Matthew THOMPSON (c), 11. Terek ELRICH, 12. Jobe WHEELHOUSE, 14. Michael BRIDGES (22. Kaz PATAFTA 58′), 15. Sean ROONEY (26. Ali ABBAS 88′), 20. Neil YOUNG (gk), 25. Labinot HALITI (9. Sasho PETROVSKI 72′).
Substitutes not used: 30. Dion SHAW (gk).
Yellow Cards: Jin-Hyung SONG 1-, Ben KANTAROVSKI 74-.
Red Cards: nil.
Goals: 14. Michael BRIDGES 24′ pen 50′, 8. Matthew THOMPSON 58′.
Referee: Strebre DELOVSKI.
Crowd: 10 114.
