With Newcastle Jets looking to make a push for finals football, Arthur Papas’ men came out of the change rooms looking to put pressure on Melbourne City early on Sunday. buy ivermectin online ivermectin online generic
Despite not being able to control the ball, the Jets had a few chances on the counterattack. However, on these occasions, Newcastle were unable to convert against one of the league’s best defences.
Newcastle’s luck changed in the 31st minute when Melbourne City winger Andrew Nabbout, conceded an unfortunate penalty when the ball struck his arm in the box as he was trying to head away a free kick. Georgian international Beka Mikeltadze got the nod to step up and take the penalty which he deftly put into the bottom right corner.
Melbourne City’s luck went from bad to worse when captain Scott Jamieson picked up his second yellow card inside of the second half leaving City a man down for the rest of the game. After the game, Papas said that he felt Jamieson was hard done by.
“I don’t think the second challenge was a nasty challenge,” said Papas.
“I saw two players really trying to win that ball. They saw it otherwise. I don’t think there was malice in it. Beka got up, so I think they will probably be disappointed.
“But I’d have to review it as well, I’m not sure if it was over the ball or not. But it just looked like they were both really trying to win it.”
It looked like the Jets were about to pull off an amazing upset that would have taken them one step closer to securing a place in the finals.
But in the 92nd minute Melbourne City young gun Max Caputo, scored his first ever A-League goal to secure a draw for the league leaders. That goal put Caputo in the record books as the youngest man to ever score in a Melbourne City shirt at the age of 17.
In the last 10 years, Newcastle have only made the finals once which was in the 2017/18 season when current Melbourne City player Nabbout led the Jets in scoring to guide them to a second-place finish.
Newcastle has been operating on thin ice since 2021 when former owner, Chinese buisnessman Martin Lee was strippped of his licence for having not injected any funds into the club since 2019 and for failing to have paid off any of the clubs debts.
Since then the club has been under the control of former NRL chief, Shane Mattiske, and is funded by a consortium of four other A-League clubs.
Papas, while thankful for this ownership model keeping the club alive, says that it is important that they find a more permanent solution as soon as possible.
“It’s always an interesting one that I’ve been pretty consistent with from day one,” Said Papas.
“We have got an ownership model where there’s four people in particular that have basically kept this club alive. To be honest, this club wouldn’t be here today I think if it wasn’t for the gentlemen who have really done so much to keep this club in the league.
“In saying that, it’s bordering on over two years now of that ownership model and I think for the club to grow and to hopefully prosper in the future with or without me to be honest, I think that needs to get resolved.
“Because the right ownership is what’s important. It’s not just about having owners, it’s about having the right owners and people that really want to invest in the community and the town and most importantly, the team. Because as tough as I am on the players, we do it a bit unique in terms of how we have to operate and function and there’s a lot of responsibility on a couple of key people to basically make sure that the club functions in a certain way.
“Hopefully, there is something around the corner, but at this stage, all we can do is focus on today and irrespective of the situation, we still have got to go out there and perform on that pitch and come away with three points and aspire to be a club like Melbourne City in the future.”
As a result of the Melbourne City draw, Newcastle now are two points outside of the finals places, with four games left to play this season.
Feature image credit: Newcastle Jets
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