Newcastle Jets beat Wellington Phoenix to end six-game goalless run

Updated: May 17, 2023, 06:06 am
David Carney of the Jets celebrates his goal with team mates during the round 15 A-League match between the Newcastle Jets and the Wellington Phoenix at Hunter Stadium on January 17, 2016 in Newcastle, Australia. (Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)
David Carney of the Jets celebrates his goal with team mates during the round 15 A-League match between the Newcastle Jets and the Wellington Phoenix at Hunter Stadium on January 17, 2016 in Newcastle, Australia. (Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)
Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images

Newcastle Jets survived the sending off of Ben Kantarovski to end their six-match A-League goalless run by beating Wellington Phoenix 2-1 at Hunter Stadium on Sunday.

The Jets went ahead from a Milos Trifunovic penalty after Dylan Fox had bundled over the forward seven minutes in, and Ryan Kitto made it two after 26 minutes.

Kantarovski had already been booked in the first half, and was shown a second yellow for a rash lunge on Vince Lia to earn a second yellow 12 minutes after the restart.

But the Jets added a third despite going a man down, with David Carney coolly slotting past Phoenix goalkeeper Glen Moss following a fine pass from the impressive Enver Alivodic.

Matthew Ridenton scored for the visitors nine minutes from time to threaten a late comeback, but the Jets held on to go level on points with Phoenix.

Kitto, who scored his debut goal for the Jets, told ABC Radio Grandstand: "The most important thing was we got a win. To experience my first win was special and I really hope there's more to come. 

"We've been creating chances in these last few weeks and once we got one, you could see we ended up scoring three.

Phoenix captain Andrew Durante said after the game: "[It's] extremely disappointing. We saw this one as a game we could definitely win.

"And if we want to be serious about the top six, we need to beat teams below us. At the moment we're not doing that and it's very disappointing. We found them hard to break down."