Melbourne City extend A-League lead with victory over Newcastle Jets

Updated: May 17, 2023, 12:07 am

Captain Scott Jamieson's first A-League goal in more than six years helped Melbourne City beat Newcastle 3-1 and extend their lead at the top of the table to four points.

The A-League frontrunners were a point ahead of Sydney FC and Central Coast heading into Thursday's clash at AAMI Park and pushed past a resolute opening half-hour from the Jets' defence for a relatively comfortable victory.

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City broke through in the 32nd minute when Andrew Nabbout charged down the left wing, cut onto his right and lashed the ball towards the back post. Johnny Koutroumbis attempted to block the shot but instead deflected it into his own net.

Newcastle almost snuck an equaliser against the run of play in the 39th minute when Rostyn Griffiths made a timely intervention to stop Matt Millar latching onto Apostolos Stamatelopoulos' clever through ball.

City doubled their lead in the 59th minute when Jamieson played a one-two with Adrian Luna then dinked a lovely shot off the post and into the bottom corner.

Melbourne City are now four points clear of their nearest rivals.
Photo by Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

It was Jamieson's third ever A-League goal, his debut strike in four years at City and his first since scoring for Perth Glory against Western Sydney in November 2014.

"It'll be the first and last time [we hear about it from Jamieson] -- we'll shut that down very quickly," coach Patrick Kisnorbo joked.

"What I was happy about most was the way it happened -- the combine play, the way we linked, we created space and on this occasion it was "Jamo" that got the reward.

"I'm sure we'll hear about it a bit more after tonight."

Ten minutes later, Griffiths launched a brilliant long cross-field ball for Nabbout, who squared it for a close range tap in from Jamie Maclaren.

Maclaren's 20th goal for the season was also his 47th for City -- drawing him level with Bruno Fornaroli as the club's all-time leading goalscorer -- and his 99th in the A-League.

Last-placed Newcastle, whose winless run extended to 11, snared a consolation goal in the 87th minute.

Millar intercepted Florin Berenguer's casual backpass, burst forward and put through Steven Ugarkovic, who slid the ball between Tom Glover's legs.

A "disappointed" Kisnorbo lamented the defensive slip-up but Newcastle counterpart Craig Deans was more reflective. 

"To go 3-0 down and then not throw the towel in and keep working hard and score a goal and make it 3-1 -- and still have the energy and the commitment to keep working hard and keep trying to change the game -- I can't fault their effort," Deans said.

"It's just the difference in quality that's the difference in the game."