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Newcastle crush NZ Knights 4-0 [Sun Sep 18th, 2005]
Newcastle has moved into second on the A-League ladder with a convincing 4-0 win over New Zealand Knights at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
The Jets registered the league's biggest victory to date despite missing star striker Ante Milicic, who suffered a hamstring strain in the warm-up.
Labinot Haliti partnered debutant Guy Bates up front for the Jets in Milicic's absence, and made the most of his opportunity by putting the home side in the lead after 12 minutes.
Matt Thompson and Stuart Musialik made it 3-0 by the break, before Nick Carle finished the rout in the 70th minute - all goals well appreciated by the vocal 7495-strong crowd.
Milicic broke his finger in last week's win over Sydney and would have started but for his recurrent hamstring problem.
Haliti's opening score followed a near miss from Thompson.
Jets skipper Ned Zelic floated a long free kick into the penalty area, which Thompson headed against the left post. Haliti reacted quickly to tap home the rebound.
Thompson doubled his side's lead in the 27th minute after the Knights failed to properly clear a Carle free kick.
The ball fell back into Carle's path, with the star midfielder looping the ball into the box for Thompson to head past keeper Danny Milosevic.
Musialik, in his starting debut, netted Newcastle's third in the 37th minute after finishing off some quality lead-up work from Carle and Richard Johnson with a great run and header.
Carle added the fourth from the penalty spot after he was tripped in the box by fullback Knights Ronnie Bull.
Newcastle coach Richard Money labelled his side's performance as clinical.
"Some of the play in the final third was tremendous, the move for the penalty was out of the top drawer," Money said.
"If we put work ethic together with the ability we've got, we've got a chance of being a decent team. We're getting better week by week, but we've done nothing yet."
After Milicic felt a twinge in his hamstring during the warm-up, Money said he felt it was better to pull the former Australian international out.
"When he came to me and said he's got a slight problem, it's not what you want to hear before the match. The boys that went up front gave that little bit extra, which was terrific."
Knights coach John Adshead was at a loss to describe his side's performance.
"We defended poorly, why that is, its hard to put your finger on," Adshead said. "We didn't get any breaks. It was a very poor day at the office. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong."
Adshead paid tribute to Newcastle's defence.
"Some of the goals were a bit bizarre. You wouldn't call them classics. But they capitalised on the breaks they got and didn't let us back in."
AAP
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