Melbourne Victory left chasing at AAMI

The indifferent start to Kevin Muscat’s reign as Melbourne Victory manager continued on Sunday night as the Newcastle Jets managed to stun the home side with a shock 2-1 win in the home side’s return match to AAMI Park, which was made possible by a double to on-loan man Nathan Burns.
 

The stage was set for Melbourne Victory in this fixture to record the three points against Newcastle. There was no better way for Victory to bounce back after a disappointing away draw last weekend with their first game at home for the year at their main home ground AAMI Park as they helped the A-League celebrate its 1000 game, if only somebody told the Jets that as they recorded a smash and grab win of the highest order.

Victory enjoyed three wins and a draw when playing their games at Etihad Stadium, including classy wins against Brisbane and Adelaide. They couldn’t however take that form with them across town as they recorded their first home defeat of 2013/14.

This was Victory’s most disappointing performance of the year as they battled to contain the Jets midfield for most of the game.

The disappointment of losing the first home match of the year at AAMI Park was not lost on Muscat after the match.

“We made all the right noises in giving our fans something to cheer about, and I don’t think we did that tonight.”

“Over a ninety minute period, it was nowhere near good enough to win a football match. We lacked intensity. The game was really slow."

"Early on, that first 15-20 minute period we looked really dangerous. We didn’t do enough to go on and win the match.”

The stats don’t look good for Victory under Muscat, previous defeats to Sydney and Western Sydney have been evened out by home wins to Wellington and Adelaide, two sides on the wrong end of the table, but with this defeat at home to the Jets in a match they should have won will surely be of concern to the Victory.

For the home side it was players on different ends of the pitch with different runs of form that will leave the Victory with high levels of concern.

Almost all of Victory’s attacking play once again went through midfielder James Troisi as he singlehandedly looked to get Victory back in the game. It was Troisi who claimed Melbourne’s solitary goal in the 50^th minute as he sneaked his shot past Mark Birighitti in the Newcastle goal.

Troisi was the only man who threatened for Victory as he took all the attacking burden by himself with the absence of Archie Thompson. The lack of any real goal mouth threat from anyone else other than Troisi is not a great sign from a side that is looking to be a main player in the championship race.

Another grave concern for Victory is that of the form of marquee man Pablo Contreras. The defender was largely at fault for Newcastle’s second goal as the list of mistakes from the Chilean now really start to add up. Contreras’ start to life as an A-League Marquee man have been less than stellar and there is no question that the Victory hierarchy are keen to get more bang out of their buck that they have spent on the defender.

For the Jets it was the Return of the Burns as Nathan Burns banged in his first goal in the A-League for six years to send the Jets on their way to a valuable three points on the road.

Much has been made of Burns since his return to the A-League with the Jets. The man on loan from Incheon United ensured it would be a nightmare return to AAMI for Victory with two goals, each of high quality.

Burns had been on the receiving end of some criticism by some pundits in the A-League world for his performances so far in his A-League return for the Jets. Those individuals will no doubt be forced to get stuck into a big serving of humble pie as the number 10 impressed greatly throughout the afternoon.

Burns opened the scoring on 44 minutes as he neatly dispatched a tidy Adam Taggart through ball past the Victory defence. The man who has had a bunch of praise heaped on him of late for his goal scoring abilities  turned provider on this occasion as he sent Burns on his way with only Nathan Coe to beat, which he did expertly.

Burns then put the Jets back in the lead in the 67^th minute as he neatly dispatched a shot from the edge of the box into the net as Victory struggled to clear the ball.

The problem for Jets coach Gary Van Egmond is that Burns’ days at the club are numbered, with his loan deal at Newcastle set to expire soon, but he is more than keen to see the man stay.

“The club is in dialogue with Incheon United, we will have to see what happens. He is an important cog in our team. I would love to see if we could come to some kind of agreement.”

“We might be talking about something we can’t control. As much as we would love to keep him, and how much he wants to stay, we have to see how it pans out.”

For Victory they will have to sit with this defeat and deal with the fact that they were outplayed on their return to AAMI Park. It is a result to saviour for Jets and their number 10 as they cement their place in the league’s top three.

Melbourne Victory

1. Nathan COE(GK), 2. Pablo CONTRERAS, 3. Adama TRAORE, 5. Mark MILLIGAN(C), 6. Leigh BROXHAM, 9. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 11. Connor PAIN, 14. James TROISI, 15. Mitch NICHOLS, 16. Rashid MAHAZI, 23. Adrian LEIJER

SUBS

20. Lawrence THOMAS (GK), 4.Nick ANSELL, 7. Guilherme FINLER, 13. Andrew NABBOUT, 25. Jason GERIA

Newcastle Jets

1. Mark Birighitti (GK), 2. Scott NEVILLE, 3. Taylor REGAN, 4. Kew JALIENS, 5. Ben KANTAROVSKI, 7. Andrew HOOLE, 8. Ruben ZADKOVICH(C), 10. Nathan BURNS, 15. Josh Brillante, 21. Sam GALLOWAY, 22. Adam TAGGART.

SUBS

20. Ben KENNEDY(GK), 9. Emille HESKEY, 11. Craig GOODWIN, 16. Jacob PEPPER, 18. James BROWN