Newcastle Jets stormed into fifth place on the Liberty A-League table with an 8-0 mauling of Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Friday afternoon – the club’s biggest win in the competition’s history.
Two goals to both Melina Ayres and Lara Gooch set the tone for the ruthless win on the road. Cassidy Davis, Lauren Allan, Emma Dundas and Alex Huynh all added to Newcastle’s massive scoring haul as the Jets stormed into the finals places in style.
Newcastle needed a win to keep their post-season hopes alive and thrived under pressure to end the regular season on a high, as Adelaide crawled to the finish line in their last game of the campaign.
The Reds would have taken an early lead if not for the superb glovework of Tiahna Robertson, signed on an injury replacement contract in midweek before her Liberty A-League debut with first-choice Jets keeper Izzy Nino suspended for the road trip to Adelaide.
Newcastle began the afternoon in seventh place on the table but ended the game in fifth, jumping both Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory and dumping the latter outside the finals standings – for now.
The formidable victory came in captain Davis’ 150th Liberty A-League game, and eclipsed the club’s previous best winning margin of 7-1 recorded against Adelaide in 2011.
Bolden struck first-time off her left foot but Reds keeper Annalee Grove made a big save to keep the score at 0-0.
With first-choice Jets keeper Izzy Nino suspended for her side’s Round 22 clash with Adelaide, Tiahna Robertson – signed in midweek on an injury-replacement contract – shone in the first half, making a string of phenomenal saves on her Liberty A-League debut – starting with an acrobatic leap to tip Isabel Hodgson’s strike over the crossbar.
Chelsie Dawber was next to put Robertson to the test and she passed with flying colours, pushing the ball around the post in a one-on-one with the Reds forward.
Robertson was on a roll, and kept her magnificent first-half display rolling when Isabel Hodgson broke through once again, but failed to beat the young Jets keeper at her near post.
The Jets had Robertson alone to thank for remaining on level terms with the home side until Davis, in game 150 for the Jets, made Adelaide pay down the other end with a scorching shot from distance in her milestone match.
The dam wall had broken at Coopers Stadium as the Jets piled on the pain, and by the break they had forged a three-goal lead.
Lara Gooch was next to find the back of the net. The Young Matildas winger cut off the right flank and into the box to beat Grove with a deflected shot off the body of Jenna Holtz inside the six-yard box.
Frustration turned to misery for Adelaide in first-half stoppage time as Allan made it three.
The veteran intercepted Grove’s attempted clearance and Bolden pounced on the loose ball to play Allan in on goal, who produced a classy finish into the bottom-left corner.
The Jets had jumped into fifth spot on the live Liberty A-League table by half-time due to their late flurry of goals before the break and less than a minute into the second half, the away side had increased their goal difference with a fourth goal, scored by Gooch and set up by Bolden.
Robertson’s magnificent afternoon in between the sticks continued in the second half, highlighted by a save from Mariah Lee’s close-range shot pushed away from the top corner and off the woodwork.
As the Jets keeper went from strength to strength with each save, Adelaide’s afternoon quickly turned into a nightmare as the visitors steamed into a six-goal lead.
Dundas made it five with her very first Liberty A-League goal. The 16-year-old squirmed through a sea of Adelaide bodies and finished with precision into the bottom-left corner.
Ayres came off the bench after Newcastle’s fifth and it took the in-form substitute just four minutes to get her name on the scoresheet.
Lorena Baumann provided the assist with an inviting floating ball, and with one superb touch Ayres took Grove out of the equation to finish into a vacant net.
By the 71st minute Ayres had her brace – and Newcastle’s seventh of the game was the pick of the bunch.
Ayres nicked possession off Dylan Holmes in midfield, sized up the target a blasted a long shot off her non-preferred left foot off the post and in.
As the game ticked into added time in the second half, Huynh – in what could be her very last game in the Liberty A-League – added an eighth for the Jets, placing a first-time shot from the edge of the area into the top-left corner of Adelaide’s goal.
