It certainly wasn’t easy, but it was deserved as the Jets Youth ran to a 2-0 win over Canberra United in the fourth round of the Foxtel Y-League.
A Kosta Petratos penalty and Kent Harrison strike, both laid on by Maki Petratos, proved the difference.
It’s the perfect start for Y-League boss, Labi Haliti in his first game in charge.
SQUAD: The men set to head to Melbourne
With other games still to be played, for the moment at least it takes the Jets to second place on the Group B ladder.
After a slow start to the opening half with the Jets enjoying a lot of the ball, the game burst into life in the 21st minute when Maki Petratos pounced on a trip on the ball from a Canberra defender and burst into the box.
That defender, Griffiths, chased after the ball and got too much of Maki’s shirt in his hand and the ref had no choice but to award a penalty. Kosta Petratos stepped up, and converted to make the score 1-0.
From there, the Jets began to create a couple of chances. Mitch Austin was proving a real threat down the left hand side, while Kosta Petratos was hungry for a second goal.
It was Jack Simmons who nearly grabbed said addition to the scoreline just minutes into the second half, when his free kick from around 25 yards out forced Canberra keeper Finn Jurak into an athletic, full-stretch diving save.
The two sides sparred as the second half wore on, with much of the action taking place between the two 18-yard boxes. Bul Juach got in behind for Canberra, but some frenetic scrambling seen the threat cleared away just in the nick of time.
With little more than 15 minutes on the clock, Labi Haliti made a pair of substitutions which would prove inspired with Kent Harrison and Ryan Goodhew coming on in place of Kosta Petratos and Jack Simmons.
From there, the Jets asserted their authority on the match. Some patient build-up play – and a couple of neat flicks from Jackson Frendo and Maki Petratos – seen the latter eventually play a ball over the top for Kent Harrison.
The substitute, who had been putting himself about in his four minutes so far on the pitch, slid his shot nicely past the Canberra ‘keeper to double the Jets advantage and put the game out of sight.
