Former players heap misery on Sydney FC

The ghosts of Christmas past were in town as Newcastle Jets scored five goals, four of which were scored by former Sydney players, in their 5-2 thrashing of Sydney FC. Jeremy Brockie bagged a brace while Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Ruben Zadkovich got one each.

Ruben Zadkovich. Credit: Kristy Beck

The night before the match, the former Sydney lads sat around the dinner table discussing the fact that a total of five players in the Jets' squad have previously played for the Sky Blues. The general consensus? That players more often than not, score against their old clubs. For this game, the sentiment rang true.

Brockie looked overtly pleased with himself following the Jets' 5-2 romp over Sydney, despite deciding not to celebrate his goals as zealously as Zadkovich did.

“It obviously came off quite well for us today and we're very happy in the change-room right now.

“I thought I'd keep mine (the celebration) to a minimum.

"I saw a couple of bottles thrown at Ruben so I thought I'm definitely not going that way, I'll just stay on the pitch and celebrate with the boys”.

When Brockie was in a sky blue shirt, he sported dreadlocks, but it's more than just his hair that has changed since his Sydney days.

“I was a young boy back then, I've had a couple more years of experience now in the A-League and I'm happy where I am.

"It's good to be scoring goals as an attacking player and hopefully I can be doing that for the team for the rest of the season”.

Sydney FC captain, Terry McFlynn, has played with all of the former Sky Blues turned Newcastle Jets players but didn't think the names on the scoresheet made the result more painful than it already was.

“I think any defeat is painful enough, regardless of who scores the goals.

“It's a trend in worldwide football that ex-players score against their former teams.

"Unfortunately for us, they had more of our ex-players tonight probably than anyone else in the league”.

The win launches Newcastle Jets into the top six of the Hyundai A-League ladder and forces the Sky Blues into seventh.

Newcastle Jets drew first blood in the 21st minute against the run of play at the SFS in front of 10 232 fans. A goalmouth scramble after a Wheelhouse corner saw Ryan Griffiths' head on goal initially cleared before Nikolai Topor-Stanley found the back of the net. The Jets left Sydney FC in their wake eight minutes later after a pinpoint header from Tarek Elrich found on-running Zadkovich who finished well to make it 2-0.

Another goal 10 minutes later seemingly finished the game off before the first half had even concluded, Jeremy Brockie sealing the deal with a free header on goal. Hiro Moriyasu and Michael Beauchamp put a goal apiece past Jets' 'keeper Ben Kennedy, temporarily clawing the game back for Sydney.

But it was not to be, 5-2 the final result after Brockie and substitute, Ali Abbas, put the result beyond doubt in the 87th and 96th minutes.