A disappointing night, no doubt about that. Melbourne got off to a cracking start, with some dangerous attacking play that looked to really be setting us up for a good night. Unfortunately, it just didn’t last. Newcastle’s first goal from the free kick was made possible after Adam Griffiths pushed Allsopp to the ground to get a better view of the ball. Interesting that that went unnoticed. A lot went unnoticed tonight it seemed.
The Jets settled in for the long haul, defending in numbers and barely allowing Melbourne a sight of goal. Clever play for sure and frustrating for the Victory players. As Pantelidis tried to shrug off Joel Griffiths, he apparently shrugged a little too hard and earned himself a red card. It’s been described as a “brain explosion“. Maybe. And perhaps it was deserved, but fairness would have at least dealt Griffiths a yellow card at the same time, because the game he was playing at that point more closely resembled sumo wrestling than football. But Matthew Breeze had a far greater “brain explosion” of his own minutes later when he allowed a clear hand ball in the penalty box. 27,000 fans saw it. All the Melbourne Victory players saw it. I’m sure all the Jets players saw it. But neither Breeze nor any of his assistant referees appeared to be paying attention. The replay is clear. Hand balls in the penalty box do NOT come more obvious than that.
A late goal to Griffiths after a Vargas blunder just capped the night off in depressing fashion.
So what can Melbourne learn? Well, for one, we must not concede first at home. If Melbourne is to play well at home, it must maintain a lead or a draw at all times. Visiting teams will always be prone to sitting back and defending narrow leads and it is clear that Melbourne struggles to break them down when they do that. Despite the loss, Melbourne looked more in form tonight than they have for most of the season. Unfortunately they were up against a resolute Jets defence, who played a very clever counter-attacking game and managed to get the lucky breaks they were undoubtedly hoping for.
It was good to see Muscat back on the pitch and great to see Hernandez get a full game. His performances have steadily been improving and perhaps by finals time (assuming we make it that far) he will indeed be the super star that we hoped for. That’s about all that I could really be positive about after tonight. Oh wait, no, there was one more positive; and that was the much improved atmosphere in the stadium after last week’s chant-strike! Keep it up guys. Someone’s got to tell the referee he’s a wanker.
Loading ...
7 responses so far ↓
1 Neil // Oct 27, 2007 at 7:37 am
Pretty poor night all up. Newcastle pretty much closed down the middle and when we looked for width our wingers, Keenan, in particular look to cut back inside every time instead of taking his man on down the touchline. Will need to see the Pantelidis incident again to make a full judgement but how much do I hate Joel Griffiths. What does he have to do not to get sent off, punches a ref in the nuts one week and then a studs up challenge from behind this week. I could go on for ages but I will get around to posting my own thoughts on my blog sometime today.
2 Matty // Oct 27, 2007 at 11:53 am
Newcastle dropped Melbourne.
Just shows what a fluke how you guys won the a-league last season.
The Griffiths Brothers ripped up the defence of Melbourne.
good luck winning it again this year Melbourne
Matt
3 Eric // Oct 27, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I think the thing I found most frustrating last night - even more frustrating than the poor refereeing - was Melbourne’s lack of drive. They came out strong in the first 15 minutes, and looked like they’d be able to produce something great. But then… well… a good 75 minutes of meandering through the Newcastle half while rarely producing anything dangerous. Newcastle spent only a tiny bit of time in the Melbourne half, but when they did, they penetrated and produced the goals. We could learn a thing or two from Newcastle.
4 Peter // Oct 27, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Yes, perhaps we could learn something from the Jets. If we’d both played that same brand of football, I imagine there would have been nine players waiting in their own halves with Joel Griffiths and Archie Thompson locked in a battle in the midfield. Entertaining stuff …
Newcastle ground out a result, which is certainly something for them to be proud of, but personally I would hate to see Melbourne play that kind of football - even if it did mean winning more matches.
5 Eric // Oct 27, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I’m certainly not advocating that Melbourne thrust into defensive mode. Rather, my comment was basically referring to the fact that Melbourne spent 65% of the time with the ball and produced very few out-and-out chances. Newcastle, on the other hand, used that 35% and produced 2 goals. Surely conversion of possession is something worth aiming for?
6 David // Oct 28, 2007 at 1:20 pm
With the benefit of hindsight (courtesy of replays) I don’t feel quite as disappointed with the performance as I did immediately after the match. As you say Allsopp does get unceremoniously dumped to the ground, and I didn’t notice that at the time, just wondered how come they could get a free header. That served the Jets’ game plan perfectly, pack the midfield, don’t let Melbourne get in behind, and counter when we are committed, which would have got them a draw before their early goal which then meant they wouldn’t have to attempt any more proper attacks and sit with a 4-5-1. I think brother Joel made a meal out of Panta’s elbow as well, pity the linesman didn’t display a similar reaction the week before. Without the sending off, and with that hand-ball penalty being given, I think Melbourne may have gone on to win, they dominated possession and kept coming forward. Disappointed with the result, but not the overall performance. My thoughts initially about the first goal was the defence needs work, and in an interview with Ernie yesterday on Fox he was being asked something similar, and he gave this cryptic reply about it not being a problem because he has signed a quality new defender but was keeping the name to himself. Maybe this is a replacement for bad boy Ljubo?
7 David // Oct 28, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Like the new theme btw =)
Leave a Comment