A-League: Wellington Phoenix fall to Newcastle Jets after three quick second-half goals

Wellington Phoenix 1

Newcastle Jets 3

In a seven-minute stretch, the Newcastle Jets sank the Wellington Phoenix’s chances of getting their A-League men’s season back on track.

It was a frenetic contest in Wellington against two teams struggling at the wrong end of the leaderboard, but three goals between the 50th and 57th minute lifted the Jets to a 3-1 win and off the bottom of the ladder.

“I don’t think you want to know what’s going through my head at the moment,” Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano told Sky Sport after the game.

“I was very disappointed, especially in the second half. The first 15 minutes, the way we started, we tried to adjust a couple of things and it just really cost us the game in the end.

“I felt as though the first half was pretty even. I thought as though we had enough chances to go into the halftime break with the lead and could’ve fixed things. I was just a little bit worried about players’ demeanour and how we were covering the game.

“Because the game was so transitional in the first half, I felt as though the stretching, it’s like a basketball game, players were getting gassed and I was worried in the second half we weren’t going to be able to keep up the intensity of the recovery runs. Nine minutes of terrible defending and, yeah.”

The Jets have now taken maximum points from their road trips to New Zealand this season, having beaten Auckland FC 2-1 a fortnight ago.

Both teams came into the fixture down on troops, with seven players listed as unavailable for each side, while the Jets lost midfielder Max Burgess to injury inside the opening five minutes.

The visitors had the better of the chances early in the contest but couldn’t quite crack the Phoenix defence which, at times, required some desperate efforts to clear their line. Carlo Armiento had a good strike from distance midway through the first half, but was denied by an equally good save by Jets goalkeeper James Delianov.

Despite opportunities on both ends, the sides remained goalless at the break.

It took a deflection from a Phoenix defender from an Eli Adams shot to wrong-foot goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi and open the scoring, before a moment to forget from the home defence.

A seemingly hopeful ball from Kosta Grozos fell in no-man’s land, catching Oluwayemi well off his line. Jets striker Lachlan Rose was able to get to the ball first and touch it over the head of the Phoenix keeper and guide the ball into the open net.

When Clayton Taylor added a third just three minutes later, it looked a long way back for the home side.

They were able to get one back through Ifeanyi Eze, who steered a pinpoint header into the top corner, but ultimately the Phoenix fell to their fourth loss of the season.

The Wellington side drop to 11th on the ladder, while the Jets shot off the bottom spot and into eighth.

Wellington Phoenix 1 (Ifeanyi Eze)

Newcastle Jets 3 (Eli Adams, Lachlan Rose, Clayton Taylor)

HT: 0-0