Melbourne Victory 4-0 Newcastle Jets
By Ben Carey 12/11/23
Above: Rachel Lowe celebrates with her Melbourne Victory teammates after scoring her first goal for her new team. Photo: Melbourne Victory.
Melbourne Victory recorded a big 4-0 win over Newcastle Jets on Saturday afternoon at the Home of the Matildas.
Victory, who have had a slow start to the season, had no such troubles against the Jets. Rachel Lowe scored just two minutes into the match, after a stellar cross from McKenzie Weinert was fumbled by the Jets keeper, Isobel Nino, and Lowe was given an easy follow up for her first goal of the campaign, and the first for Melbourne Victory.
10 minutes later, Nino fumbled a save again, which gave Lowe an open shot on goals, which she took. Claudia Cicco tracked back just in time and made a wonderful, sliding clearance off the goal line to deny Lowe a brace and keep her team in the match.
It was a relatively quiet start to the second half, but around the hour mark the floodgates well and truly opened up for Melbourne Victory. In the 65th minute, Alana Murphy floated a long-distance free kick into the box, which was headed out by a Jets player and fell right at the feet of Lowe, who struck it beautifully on the first touch and thumped it into the back of the net.
Not even 60 seconds later, a wonderfully weighted long ball from Murphy found the recently signed Junior Matilda, Ella O’Grady, who caught the Jets’ defenders out of position with a perfectly timed run and easily beat the keeper to make it 3-0 to Victory.
The Jets were able to stop the bleeding for about 20 minutes, but their day went from bad to worse at the end of regulation time. A cross into the box from a Victory player took a horribledeflection off the boot of a Jets defender and it floated over Nino’s head for an own goal.
It was a great team effort from Melbourne Victory to get the win. Kayla Morisson and Jamilla Rankin put in a good shift in defence. Beattie Goad, Weinert, and O’Grady were all dangerous in the front line. But it was the Victory midfield that really stole the show, with two goals from Lowe, and one official assist from Murphy (but direct involvement in two other goals as well).
It was a hard day at the office for Newcastle Jets, who fell behind early and fought hard to stay in the match but were ultimately overwhelmed by the quality of Victory’s attacks and also a sprinkle of bad luck. It’s important to note that the Jets were missing two key players in Cass Davis, their captain and most experienced player, and Melina Ayres, their most dangerous striker. Had they been on the field, it could have been a different story.
Melbourne Victory will face their biggest test of the season next Saturday when they take on the undefeated Perth Glory. The following day, Newcastle Jets will have an equally difficult challenge when they come up against the in-form Melbourne City, who have also yet to lose a match this season.
MELBOURNE VICTORY (4-3-3): Williams, Nash, Morrison, Hansen, Rankin, Lowe, Murphy, Kellond-Knight, Weinert, Okino, Goad. Substitutes: Templeman, D’Appolonia, Briedis, O’Grady, Gielnik.
Scorers: Lowe 2’, 65’, O’Grady 66’, Burrows (OG) 88’.
Teams: NEWCASTLE JETS (4-2-3-1): Nino, Cicco, Prior, Huynh, Baumann, Burrows, Dundas, Copus-Brown, Allan, Gooch, Barbieri. Substitutes: Rochaix, Wilson, Simon, Hoban, Hammond.
Referee: Anna-Marie Keighley.
Attendance: TBD.
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