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Victory defeat Jets in five-goal thriller

Friday, December 28, 2012

by
Melbourne Victory maintained third position on the ladder with a 3-2 win over Newcastle Jets in an entertaining encounter at Aami Park.

Goals in each half from Marco Rojas and a strike from Archie Thompson were enough for the home side to pick up three points, while the visitors will feel they deserved at least a point after goals from Ruben Zadkovich and marquee signing Emile Heskey in the second half.

Both sides had chances early to find an opener, with Connor Chapman and Craig Goodwin missing decent headed opportunities for the visitors, while they had Mark Birighitti to thank up the other end denying
Thompson with a smart save with his feet.

With just over half an hour gone, Victory opened the scoring through Rojas who has continued his good form this season  with a great individual effort to open the scoring, unleashing a fierce drive from distance which Birighitti failed to get his hand onto.

Moments before half-time, the home side doubled their advantage as Celeski played through Rojas down the
right hand side who delivered a perfect low cross which Thompson coolly slotted past the Jets keeper.

In the second half the visitors came out firing, having a James Virgili effort cleared off the line by Leigh Broxham.

Captain Zadkovich gave his side some hope midway through the second half with a low drive from about twenty-five yards beating the outstretched arm of Nathan Coe.

With less than twenty minutes remaining Heskey found an equaliser after Adama Traore failed to clear, blasting a shot which hit the cross bar before finding the back of the net. The cheers of the away supporters however lasted less than sixty seconds as Rojas scored his second of the evening with a well-controlled volley to beat Birighitti.

MV – Nathan COE, Leigh BROXHAM, Adama TRAORE, Matthew FOSCHINI, Nick ANSELL, Guilherme FINKLER (Isaka CERNAK 83’), Billy CELESKI, Jonathan BRU (Spase DILEVSKI 64’), Marco FLORES (Andrew NABBOUT 77’), Archie THOMPSON, Marco ROJAS.

NJ – Mark BIRIGHITTI, Josh MITCHELL (James BROWN 87’), Dominik RITTER, Connor CHAPMAN, Sam GALLAWAY, Joshua BRILLANTE, Ruben ZADKOVICH, Ryan GRIFFITHS, Emile HESKEY, Craig GOODWIN, James VIRGILI.