A cracking hat-trick from Ante Milicic spurred the Newcastle Jets to a 4-2 win over the New Zealand Knights at North Harbour Stadium on the eve of Guy Fawkes 2005, as the visitors effectively wrapped up this Hyundai A-League contest inside nine first half minutes with three sparkling goals.
But the Jets' sharp-shooter missed a second half penalty in this match, one in which the home team managed a late flourish courtesy two strikes from dreadlocked substitute Jeremy Brockie, both of which featured fellow youngster Kris Bright in the build-up.
Given the manner in which the Jets had unhinged the Knights during their first round clash, an away win was anticipated in this match, and the visitors didn't disappoint, especially given the manner in which they went about achieving it in the first half.
Quite simply, they gave their hosts a little bit of a footballing lesson. The Knights contributed to their own demise by giving their opponents way too much time and space in which to play, and how Newcastle exploited it.
In the sixth minute, the 2500-strong crowd were stunned by a splendid interchange of passes, at least ten in number, which culminated in Allan Picken playing the ball forward for Milicic, whose control was superb. So was his back-heeled lay-off into the path of the darting Nick Carle - by his standards, a rather subdued display.
But on this occasion, he drew the defence before wrong-footing two opponents with a clever reverse pass, which gave Milicic time and space in which to let fly. The combined efforts of Danny Milosevic and Cole Tinkler thwarted him on this occasion, while from the resulting Carle corner, Jade North rattled the crossbar with a near post header.
Yes, Newcastle had come to play, but for all their attacking flamboyance and joie de vivre, they are at times naˆØve defensively, and twice inside the next three minutes, they had gifted openings to the Knights, who could quite easily have opened the scoring and changed the tone of the match with these opportunities.
A poor clearance by Jobe Wheelhouse fell perfectly for Simon Yeo on the edge of the penalty area, but the home team's leading goalscorer lashed his snapshot across the face of goal. Two minutes later, a wayward Richard Johnson pass was pounced on by Kris Bright, who fired a first-time drive at Liam Reddy.
This stirred the Jets into life, with Wheelhouse looking to make amends for his earlier error by thrashing a shot at Milosevic. In the sixteenth minute, Milicic picked out Mateo Corbo steaming up on his left, and the full-back hammered a shot into the sidenetting from the edge of the penalty area.
The next time Newcastle attacked, they turned round with smiles on their faces, Milicic having finished off the first of his treble in the nineteenth minute. He started the move, running at the Knights defence before playing a slick one-two with Carle. The striker's return pass was a delicious defence-splitter, and Milicic's predatory instincts were to the fore as he got goalside of the pedestrian figure of Tinkler and gleefully slotted home past the exposed figure of Milosevic.
1-0 to the Jets swiftly became 2-0, as they doubled their advantage two minutes later. Milicic was the creator this time, bursting down the right before delivering what can't be described as the greatest cross in history.
It did for Danny Hay, however, the Knights captain executing an air-shot in his attempt to clear the sphere, which allowed it to continue on its intended flight-path towards Matthew Thompson. He raced onto it and hit a first-time shot from the edge of the area which struck Darren Bazeley square amidships and ricocheted off him into the net, rendering Milosevic helpless.
Two goals adrift, the Knights had to do something pronto lest the game run away from them. A smart 24th minute counter-attack offered hope, Ben Collett and Joshua Rose combining to set Bright alight. He took the ball on and, spotting Reddy off his line, shot early, his dipping twenty-five yard effort only just clearing the crossbar, much to the relief of a player whose complexion would have matched his surname.
Talking of surnames, the young Knights striker certainly lived up to his - Bright - throughout this match, and for seventy minutes, was the lone local player to perform up to the desired standards of a club which, during the week, had something of a set-to with the media after calling a conference to both reaffirm the role of John Adshead as team manager, and attempt to quell the growing impatience which is evident in the output of some members of the fourth estate.
Those concerned will have no excuses for not accentuating the positive regarding certain aspects of this match, the next of which was another splendidly taken goal by Milicic. Seconds after Stuart Musiliak had pulled the ball back behind the striker, Newcastle went route one, with interest.
A raking clearance from Reddy was allowed to bounce by the Knights, and Wheelhouse powered past Collett at pace before getting into the penalty area, from where he fired a low cross into the path of Milicic. The striker's neat control allowed him both time and space from which he could pick his spot, and his precise low finish left Milosevic clutching at air - 3-0 after twenty-eight minutes, contest effectively over!
The Knights sought a swift response, with Yeo and Bright both going close before the half-hour mark, after which Carle unleashed a rasping drive which Milosevic spilled - fortunately for him, no-one had been following in.
This shot, and his contribution to the first goal apart, the gifted number ten had been a rather subdued performer, so much so that you could have been forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about regarding Carle. But a thirty-second cameo in the 34th minute answered all-comers, and left many shaking their heads and wondering, "How on earth did he do that?"
"That" was a quite brilliant exhibition of close control under pressure inside the Knights penalty area, supplemented by a razor-sharp turn which left those covering his every move, Collett and Rose, looking at each other in disbelief both at what had happened, and where their quarry had gone.
Carle, meanwhile, had fully exploited the five yards of space he'd made for himself, and clipped a cross beyond the far post onto the head of Milicic, who headed over from a tight angle - what a hat-trick goal this would have been!
Newcastle coasted through to half-time quite content with their three-goal advantage, although Yeo and Rose both fired shots towards the target either side of the interval which promised more had Ned Zelic not been on hand to defuse the threats they posed.
The visitors' first raid of the second half, in the 55th minute, saw the scoreboard change once more. Musiliak swept the ball wide to half-time substitute Labinot Haliti, who linked up with the charging figure of Johnson.
Tinkler got a foot in to curtail his progress, but only found Milicic, who brought the ball down expertly then, with his next touch, executed the perfect chip on the turn over an unsighted Milosevic and just under the bar - 4-0, and what a hat-trick goal that was, the first individual treble in the A-League's brief history.
Milicic should have had another goal two minutes later, this time from the penalty spot. It followed an eagle-eyed flag-bearer spotting Tinkler's handball offence, as he knocked the ball away to prevent the full-of-running Thompson from charging on towards goal. Referee Matthew Breeze pointed to the spot, from where Milicic fired to Milosevic's right.
The 'keeper dived in that direction, and produced a good save, one from which the Knights drew inspiration for the remaining half-hour or so of the match. Rose lashed a twenty-five yarder into the hoardings on the hour mark, while Hay and Milosevic combined to curtail Milicic's pursuit of a Haliti through ball seconds later, an attack which was to prove Newcastle's lone raid of note in the next twenty-odd minutes.
For the Knights, now playing with a degree of passion which had been conspicuous by its absence in the first forty-five minutes, were pressing for some semblance of reward from a match which was, to some extent, all over bar the shouting.
There was a wee bit of that still to do, however, thanks largely to Bright and another youngster, substitute Jeremy Brockie. The former was central to another attack before the latter was introduced, however, pouncing on a loose ball in the 66th minute to fire a shot goalwards.
Picken blocked this, with the rebound falling neatly to Zenon Caravella. Instead of shooting, the midfielder opted to lure two defenders towards him, thereby creating space for Yeo to race into. A measured pass invited the striker to let fly, but he pulled his shot wide of the near post - he won't need telling he should have done better!
Instead, it was up to the young bucks to show their comparatively statesmanlike team-mates what can happen when caution is cast to the wind. Doubtless it will please the Knights' more xenophobic followers that the two lads concerned are Kiwis to boot ’Ķ as are the two lads at the heart of a defence which was breached four times in this match! (You lose some, you draw some, where this argument's concerned!)
The fun and games started in the 69th minute, when Brockie was introduced in place of Rose. Within two minutes, the substitute had darted in from the right flank to support a run from Bright, who spotted his team-mate's dreadlocks flailing wildly in the wind and picked him out with a delightfully weighted pass. Brockie took the ball in his stride and squeezed a shot past the unsuspecting Reddy, much to the delight of all those of a Knights bent.
4-1 quickly became 4-2 - surely they weren't going to do the seemingly unthinkable and haul back a four-goal deficit? No, they weren't, but the Knights duly celebrated their second goal of the game, which this time featured Brockie from the outset.
Once again, he cut in from the right, and again linked with Bright, this time via a one-two. This took Brockie to the edge of the penalty area, where he swept past Picken before planting a beauty beyond Reddy and the lunging Zelic and into the bottom far corner of the net.
These goals certainly cheered the local faithful, and Brockie milked their joy for all he was worth - and why not? The youngest member of the squad has, in just twenty-seven minutes' game-time, or two appearances as a substitute, scored nigh on 30% of his team's goals so far this season - he's the NZ Knights' answer to "The Bionic Carrot", aka David "Supersub" Fairclough!!
The visitors, roused from their seeming slumbers by the home team's rapid-fire double-strike, generated the last chance of the match eight minutes from time. Pouncing on a John Tambouras error, Thompson slipped Franco Parisi through with just Milosevic to beat, but the goalkeeper stood his ground to block well at the substitute's feet.
Newcastle were worthy winners, however, leaving one to wonder what might have happened had they not coasted through over half the game, and instead applied the same degree of intensity and focus which enabled them to earn a draw at Sydney FC last weekend?
Instead, their 4-2 triumph will be remembered by locals more for Brockie's cameo than for Milicic's hat-trick, but it is the latter effort which was instrumental in the Jets flying by the Knights to leap-frog into an overnight second placing on the league table, a ranking which the beleaguered bottom-placed side can but dream about.