Victory vs Jets: Minute by minute
Welcome to Victory In Melbourne’s first ever minute by minute analysis of a Melbourne Victory match as they take on the Newcastle Jets at Energy Australia Stadium.
Brebner in for Broxham and Pondeljak in for Kruse. Moss (gk), Sukha, Vargas, Muscat (c), Leijer, Kemp, Brebner, Carlos, Ney Fabiano, Pondeljak, Thompson.
Boo-boy Ljubo out for the Jets. Kennedy (gk), Topor-Stanley, Song, Thompson (c), Elrich, Bridges, Kantarovski, Vignarolli, Patafta, Haliti.
4 min: Great save by Moss from former Melbourne old boy, Patafta followed quickly by a yellow card for Thompson for a foul on Hernandez. Ben Williams stamps his authority early on.
7 min: Close call for the Victory as confusion reigns in the penalty box. Fortunately the offside flag was up.
8min: Hernandez has Melbourne’s first shot on goal. Well wide of the mark. Good to hear the Melbourne fans in full voice.
11min: Yellow card for Kemp for a robust challenge on Song.
12min: Brebner gives away a free kick in a dangerous position, fouling Vignarolli. Free kick straight into the wall.
18 min: Mark Bosnich in commentary continues to state the bleeding obvious.
22 min: GOAL! Haliti scores for the Jets. Put through by a brilliant through ball by Elrich. Extremely soft goal. Haliti sure likes to score against the Victory. 1-0 to the Jets.
27 min: Newcastle goal ruled out for offside. Moss caught well out of position. Melbourne defence again looking very shaky. After dominating the early stages, Melbourne now on the back foot.
32 min: Kemp thwarts a promising move for the Victory with a bad first touch.
36 min: Melbourne again lucky to be only 1-0 down as they scramble the ball away for a corner.
42 min: Ljubo spotted in the crowd with a blonde. Very reminiscent of his year at the Victory.
45 min: Now that Ben Kennedy has got himself a contract extension maybe he can afford to get himself a decent haircut.
45+1 min: Yellow card for Brebner for a cynical foul on Vignarolli.
45+2 min: And Ben Williams blows his whistle for the end of the first half. After what was a promising start for the Victory, Newcastle dominated the remainder of the half. Melbourne’s defence has been looking at sixes and sevens for the second week in a row and will need to improve in the second half if Melbourne is to get back into this one as Newcastle look dangerous every time they go into attack. In contrast, Melbourne has rarely threatened the Newcastle defence.
Melbourne make their move. Ney Fabiano off for Mate Dugandzic. Melbourne definitely looking for a more mobile attack to test the Jets defence. Hopefully it has the same effect as it did against Adelaide a few weeks back. Melbourne switching to a 3-5-2 formation.
45 min: Second half underway.
49 min: Thompson shoots over the crossbar after some good lead up play from Dugandzic. First decent attempt for the match.
55 min: Free kick to Melbourne right on the edge of the penalty box. Extremely close to being a penalty. Hernandez’s free kick goes straight into the wall. Things looking a lot more promising for the Victory in the second half.
59 min: Patafta off for Ali Abbas.
62 min: GOALLLLLLLLLLLL! to the Victory. Archie Thompson brilliantly lobs Kennedy after getting onto a great long ball from Hernandez. 1-1.
65 min: Moss pulls off a fantastic save to deny Haliti. Looked like a handball by Bridges there in the earlier play.
66 min: Broxham on for Sukha and almost straight away gives away a penalty for a handball of his own from the resulting corner. Fortunately for the Victory, both the referee and linesman failed to spot it.
72 min: Broxham hits the side netting looking to score from the impossible angle. Just as Melbourne were looking much more assured at the back, Haliti hits the crossbar with header.
74 min: Handbags at ten paces between Bridges and Leijer. Bridges somehow gets the free kick. Abbas goes near post and fails to put Moss under pressure.
78 min: Yellow card for D’Appuzzo for a foul on Brebner.
80 min: GOALLLLLLLLLLLL! Pondeljak gets on the end of a rebound after a long range effort from Hernandez comes crashing back off the crossbar after beating Kennedy to put Melbourne ahead 2-1.
81 min: Moments after scoring, Pondeljak comes off limping to be replaced by Nathan Elasi making his A-League debut. Not his first game for the Victory as he did make some appearances during our first ACL campaign.
84 min: GOALLLLLLLLLLLL! Hernandez makes it three for the Victory after tucking one between the legs of Kennedy. Hernandez has been on fire in this second half being involved in all three Melbourne goals.
90 min: Crowd figure of 6,029. Where have all the Newcastle fans gone? It’s not like their team plays shit football.
90+4 min: And Ben Williams blows the final whistle and Melbourne comes away with a 3-1 victory over their bogey team. Nice way to bounce back from last week’s disappointing loss against Sydney. You would have to say the introduction of Mate Dugandzic for the second half was an inspired substitution from Ernie Merrick. The Victory attack looked much more potent in the second half with his presence. Here’s hoping that Merrick persists with the 3-5-2 formation against Adelaide next week.
Tags: archie thompson, carlos hernandez, labinot haliti, Mate Dugandzic, melbourne victory, newcastle jets, tom pondeljak
