Western United 2-4 Newcastle Jets
After Extra-Time
by Ryan Miller-Woods (14/4/24)
Above: Celebration time for Newcastle Jets in their superb Elimination Final win at Western United. Photo: A-League Women.
In what was a highly entertaining Elimination Final with 40 shots in total between both sides, Newcastle Jets have made it to the Semi-Finals with a 4-2 win over Western United. Newcastle will now play a two-legged encounter against Premiers Melbourne City for a spot in the A-League Women’s Grand Final.
Early on, United looked the most likely to have opened the scoring with a chance from outside the box by Aimee Medwin in the 10th minute. However, it was the Jets who scored first a minute later via Lauren Allan’s excellent pass that found Sarina Bolden who showed great control and skill to slot past Alyssa Dall’Oste and into the bottom right corner for her 13th goal of the season.
The Jets’ lead would only last 10 minutes as Tyla-Jay Vlajnic’s corner found Alana Cerne in the box whose first-time shot put the ball just past Tiahna Robertson and into the bottom left corner for her first goal in the A-League Women.
Eighteen minutes later, United thought they’d taken the lead as Catherine Zimmerman dispossessed Josie Wilson and went one-on-one with Robertson and, despite being on a tight angle was able to put the ball across which forced an own goal out of Wilson. However, the officials ruled that Zimmerman had fouled Wilson in getting to the ball in the first place.
Afterwards, the Jets really piled on the pressure in attack and in the 45th minute, were awarded a penalty due to a handball by Western’s Jaclyn Sawicki. Bolden converted into the top right corner to ensure that Newcastle went into the break ahead.
Eleven minutes into the second half, as Western’s Medwin shaped up for a shot, the lights went out at Tarneit at a really untimely moment for her. After a slight delay in proceedings in which the lights came back on, the match resumed with a dropball from outside the box for United.
Ten minutes later, United were awarded a penalty when Zimmerman was brought down in the box by Libby Copus-Brown. Zimmerman converted into the bottom right corner as Western equalised for the second time in the match.
As the second half drew to a close, both sides looked to find that elusive winner in normal time but to no avail, though Melina Ayres came agonisingly close to winning it for Newcastle in the fifth minute of stoppage time via a Lara Gooch cross into the box but couldn’t quite convert the opportunity.
With four minutes remaining in the opening period of extra-time, Ayres had better luck. Barbieri floated in a beautiful cross into her path in the box and the former Melbourne Victory player’s first-time shot nestled into the back of the net as Newcastle regained the lead once again. There aren’t many better ways to celebrate your birthday than scoring a crucial goal for your team.
With six minutes remaining of the extra half-hour, the Jets sealed the result once and for all as Sophie Hoban scored her first A-League Women goal from Ayres’ cross.What an occasion and moment to get your first goal in the league. Despite Western United’s best efforts, Newcastle held onto their two-goal lead come the final whistle.
Teams: WESTERN UNITED (4-3-3): Dall’Oste, Vlajnic, Maher, Cerne, Papadopoulos, Robers, Sawicki, M. Taranto, Medwin, Zimmerman, Johnson. Substitutes: Larsen, Sardo, Prakash, Hieda, De Domizio.
Scorers: Cerne 22’, Zimmerman (pen) 68′.
NEWCASTLE JETS (3-4-3): Robertson, Baumann, Prior, Wilson, Dundas, Copus-Brown, Davis, L. Allan, Bolden, Hammond, Barbieri. Substitutes: Dunbar, Ayres, Huynh, Hoban, Gooch.
Scorers: Bolden 11’, 45+1 (pen)’, Ayres 101’, Hoban 114’.
Referee: Georgia Ghirardello.
Attendance: 3,370.
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