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For the second time this season against the Jets Del Piero set up one and scored another as the Sky Blues rocketed up to fourth place on the A-League ladder with a hard fought victory.
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The Jets came out firing at the start of the second half with a flood of possession and had a great chance to open the scoring through Ruben Zadkovich but the skipper’s drive from just inside the area was well saved by Vedran Janjetovic.
Despite their domination the Jets failed to punish Sydney on the score sheet and they paid the price in the 60th minute when a beautifully flighted corner from Del Piero picked out Sasa Ognenovski who fired a bullet header from six yards past a helpless Birighitti.
The Italian Maestro sealed the win in the 73rd minute when he pounced on a loose ball from Josh Brilliante before cleverly drawing a challenge from Taylor Regan inside the box to earn his side a penalty.
Despite what appeared to be little contact the referee awarded the spot kick and the Sydney skipper stepped up to double their advantage and seal the points.
The victory made it back to back wins for the Sky Blues and somewhat eased the enormous pressure on coach Frank Farina after moving them up to fourth spot on the A-League ladder.
The Sydney boss felt getting a win away from home was a huge boost but conceded there was still a long way to go before the business end of the season.
“Yeah huge three points for us, the past month has been a bit of a grind for everyone at the club but good to get three points away,” he said.
“We’re not thinking of the finals at this stage, there’s still seven games to go, there’ll be a lot more twists and turns in the competition there’s no doubt about that, any points you get are very valuable.”
Despite the negativity feedback from fans following their loss three weeks ago against Adelaide United, Farina felt his side were capable of fighting their way back.
“I’ve always had the belief that we could fight our way out of the situation that we were in and all the bombs that were being thrown in the last two or three weeks from all angles,” he said.
“Last week was must win and to back it up this week shows the character that’s in our club and in our team.”
Interim Jets boss Clayton Zane was relatively happy with the Jets performance but conceded they needed to be more creative in the final third to break down a resolute Sydney defensive unit.
“From a football perspective we played some good stuff, probably the one thing we did miss today was in that front third, we lacked a little bit of imagination and we need to do a bit of work and how we can start to unlock teams,” he said.
“I wasn’t unhappy with that performance, I thought it was a solid performance but just missing that icing on the cake, definitely.”
Zane admitted Del Piero was the difference between the two teams and despite not having his best match he still created havoc for the home side’s defence.
“I think everyone even his own coaching staff are sitting on the bench amazed at some of the things he does, he’s so clever, it is great to watch him,” he said.
“We are privileged to have him come up here and play, although it wasn’t his finest performance I think Newcastle fans have seen some good moments against us in the past as well.”
Newcastle Jets: 1. Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 3. Taylor REGAN, 6. Zenon CARAVELLA, 7. Andrew HOOLE, 8. Ruben ZADKOVICH (c), 9. Emile HESKEY, 11. Craig GOODWIN, 14.Josh MITCHELL, 15. Josh BRILLANTE, 17. James VIRGILI, 21. Sam GALLAWAY, 20. Ben KENNEDY (gk), 22. Adam TAGGART, 23. David CARNEY, 24. Mitch OXBORROW, 29. Joel GRIFFITHS
Sydney FC:1.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 4.Ranko DESPOTOVIC,5.Matt JURMAN, 6.Nikola PETKOVIC, 9.Corey GAMEIRO, 10.Alessandro DEL PIERO (c), 11.Richard GARCIA, 13.Sasa OGNENOVSKI, 17.Terry ANTONIS, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 22.Ali ABBAS, 24.Hagi GLIGOR, 25.Daniel PETKOVSKI, 28.Matt THOMPSON, 29.Alec UROSEVSKI, 36.Themba MUATA-MARLOW