Jets end Wellington's season with thumping win

The Newcastle Jets have ensured the race for the top six has been whittled down to just seven teams after demolishing Wellington Phoenix 5-0 at Hunter Stadium on Saturday night.

A brace to golden boot favourite Adam Taggart and strikes from Emile Heskey, Joel Griffiths and Michael Bridges led Newcastle to their biggest ever A-League win and effectively ending Wellington’s season.

The Jets enjoyed the lion's share of possession in the first half and were rewarded in the 35th minute with Emile Heskey on the spot to prod home his first goal of the season from a Ruben Zadkovich corner.

The floodgates opened in the second half with Griffiths netting a cracking volley in the 46th minute before Taggart’s double was rounded off with an absolute stunning long range volley from veteran Michael Bridges.

The assistant coach and player came on as a late substitute and despite being 35 showed all of his Premier League class with a sweetly timed first time volley from the edge of the box which flew into the top corner.

Jets coach Clayton Zane was thrilled with the performance and admitted he let his players enjoy the result whilst keeping one eye on next week’s tough away trip to Perth.

“Definitely, I said to a couple of the boys at the end to go off and do a lap because it’s not very often that you leave the pitch 5-0 in your favour so it’s more about the boys soaking up and enjoying the moment,” he said.

“I think for the staff already you need to have one eye on the next game, I felt a little bit when it went to 3 or 4 nil my mind was almost wondering across to what’s going to happen in the west next week.

“I really should take some time and enjoy the moment but I don’t think I will allow myself to do that.”

The comprehensive result lifts the Jets into sixth place on goal difference ahead of Sydney FC and Zane felt it was a relief knowing that their finals destiny was in their own hands.

“Yeah there’s been a couple of weeks where we’ve had a little look over our shoulder and thought are we there yet, we won three out of four there and it wasn’t enough to get us in there,” Zane said.

“I think more than anything it’s good that the players see now that their efforts for the previous five or six weeks is being rewarded and they’ve got a little taste of what it’s like to be in the six.

“There’s no kidding around here, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“There’s three very important matches but what it does is obviously buys us a week of not having to play catch up and we can control things a little bit more.”

Wellington boss Ernie Merrick admitted injuries and suspensions caught up to the Phoenix and frankly acknowledged that they were not capable of making the finals.

“I don’t think we’re going to make the finals now, I don’t think realistically we’re going to make the finals, I think we blew our chance tonight,” he said.

“We’d have to consistently play three good games and win all three of them and I just don’t see us doing that with the lineup we’ve got at the moment.

“Our suspensions and injuries have taken their toll, you can get away with it for so long but we couldn’t get away with it any longer and we’ve paid the price.”

The Jets continue their finals push when they travel to Perth next weekend while Wellington will need to scrap a win against Adelaide United and hope for results to fall their way.

Newcastle Jets
1.Mark BIRIGHITTI (GK) 4.Kew JALIENS 5.Ben KANTAROVSKI 6.Zenon CARAVELLA 8.Ruben ZADKOVICH (C)
9.Emile HESKEY 11.Craig GOODWIN 14.Josh MITCHELL 15.Josh BRILLANTE 19.Michael BRIDGES 21.Sam GALLAWAY 20.Ben KENNEDY (GK) 22.Adam TAGGART 23.David CARNEY 24.Mitch OXBORROW 29.Joel GRIFFITHS

Wellington Phoenix
1.Glen MOSS (GK) 2.Manny MUSCAT 4.Luke ADAMS 5.Michael BOXALL 9.Kenny CUNNINGHAM 10.Stein HUYSEGEMS 11.Jeremy BROCKIE 12.Tyler BOYD 15.Jason HICKS 17.Vince LIA 19.Hamish WATSON 20.Lewis ITALIANO (GK) 22.Andrew DURANTE (C) 23.Matthew RIDENTON 24.Roy KRISHNA
25.Shaun TIMMINS


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