One perfect night for the Jets

The Novocastrians who attended tonight’s football match between the Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United were lucky enough to be part of an almost perfect football experience.

Tonight’s match saw very high quality football, drama, passion, controversy and ultimately for the Newcastle Jets, a last gasp victory.

On a day were the storm clouds threatened to unleash their fury, only to be blown out to sea, the action on the pitch unfolded in exactly the same manner.

The night started in a carnival atmosphere as the appreciative Newcastle public welcomed Harry Kewell to EnergyAustralia Stadium as a special guest of the Jets to watch his first live A-League match.

On the park, the Jets had a multitude of chances in the first half of the match but were not able to convert. It looked like it was going to be one of those days, especially when Vaughan Coveny was controversially booked by the referee Mathew Breeze for diving.

Subsequent to the incident, Coveny looked like a man possessed and when presented with a lofted pass over the Adelaide defence from Stuart Musialik, made no mistake with a left footed shot low into the far right of the goal.

Adelaide were given a hand back into the game when Jets captain Paul Okon pulled down Shengqing Qu in the Jets’ penalty area. Carl Veart put the ball passed Ben Kennedy, only to be asked to re-take the shot after Adelaide players encroached into the penalty area before the shot was taken but his second attempt achieved the same result and Adelaide were back in the game at 1-1.

In the 64th minute of the game, Adelaide had a great chance to go ahead when Shengqing Qu found himself in front of goal but Jets keeper Ben Kennedy got down superbly to save. The Jets then started to rack up their shots on goal. Nicky Carle had a fabulous dipping shot denied by the fingertips of the Adelaide keeper.

Controversy struck on the 88th minute mark. Call it Newcastle’s version of Maradonna’s “hand of god”. In a reflex motion, Jade North deflected a Shengqing Qu header off the goal line with his hand and was given a straight red card.

With only minutes remaining and with the full weight of the crowd against him, Carl Veart took the ensuing penalty only to see it sail over the cross bar.

In the next minute, Nicky Carle made a sublime run from inside his own half and in a fantastic individual display, swerved the ball with the outside of his boot from just outside the penalty area and into the goal. Pandemonium ensued all around the ground.

In the post match press conference, Jets Head Coach, Gary Van Egmond described it as a “magnificent individual goal”.

Having won all matches since he took charge of the Jets, Gary was happy not looking a gift horse in the mouth “Tonight we had that bit of luck that we’ve been missing. It has given us that bit of hope,” said Van Egmond.

“When Veart stepped up to take that penalty, I felt that an injustice had been done because we did not deserve to lose that game,” said Van Egmond, “the football gods must have been smiling on us”.

Nicky Carle made a particular effort to state where he believed part of that luck originated. The crowd was phenomenal. 10,985 strong and full of voice, spirit and passion. The crowd lifted to carry the team to victory.

“I want to make a point to thank the crowd,” Carle said, “It was a real buzz and a real push for us. They were that extra player tonight”.

Thank you Newcastle, savour the feeling. You deserve it.

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!