A milestone match for more than one reason ended in victory for the Newcastle Jets on Monday night.
It was game number 100 in Jets colours for captain, Nigel Boogaard. Connor O’Toole made his Newcastle Jets debut in the left-back role, while Joe Ledley made his starting debut.
Melbourne City were the opposition, coming into this match off the back of a big win over the Central Coast Mariners on Friday night.
Played in front of an empty stadium for the second time in four days with social distancing practices in full swing, Newcastle started strong at home with chances falling to Roy and Connor O’Toole inside the opening 25 minutes.
It took until just before the half-time whistle for the deadlock to break, and it was another milestone when that happened: Nick Fitzgerald’s first goal in Jets colours.
A sublime ball from Dimi Petratos fed Nick Fitzgerald through as he drove at the City defence. The tricky attacker beat a couple, before bending one into the far post with his left foot to open the scoring.
City started the second half strongly, threatening Lewis Italiano’s goal on a number of occasions before they finally found a way through in the 71st minute.
A floated ball over the top found a free Florin Berenguer, who had found space at the back post, and headed past Italiano to level things up.
It wasn’t a lead which would last for long though – Steven Ugarkovic scoring an absolute belter of a goal from some 20 yards out on the 78th minute to put his side back into the lead.
Yet another milestone would present itself before the night was out, with Carl Robinson making the decision to bring on Glen Moss for what would be his 250th Hyundai A-League appearance.
