A-League new boys Melbourne Heart have outplayed Newcastle Jets to notch up a 2-0 win in Port Macquarie this afternoon. The visitors hit the lead eight minutes after half-time through Nick Kalmar, who scored a beauty, before Gerald Sibon added an injury time penalty to help his side move to fifth on the table, confining the Jets to 10th with just two wins from 10 matches.
A-League Week 12Newcastle Jets: 0 Melbourne Heart: 2 (Nick Kalmar 53', Gerald Sibon (p) 90+4')
Venue: Port Macquarie Regional Stadium Crowd: approx. 3,000 Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones Yellow cards:NJ - nil MH - Wayne Srhoj 76', Gerald Sibon 88'
Melbourne were the better of the two sides in the first half with a number of chances created but not finished, highlighted by Adrian Zahra's failure to capitalise on a neat Gerald Sibon pass midway through the term.
Newcastle had opportunities of their own but nothing that really worried Heart keeper Clint Bolton in an opening 45 minutes that failed to deliver much to the Port Macquarie fans.
GOAL Eight minutes after the half-time break, the Heart broke the deadlock when Josip Skoko found Nick Kalmar in the area and the midfielder finished in spectacular fashion with a sideways bicycle which rewarded the visiting side for their positive attacking play.
The Jets pushed hard for a leveller but were unable to break down Melbourne's defence before the Heart were given an injury-time penalty when Tarek Elrich brought down substitute Eli Babalj in the area. GOAL Gerald Sibon stepped up to the spot and sent Ben Kennedy the wrong way, completing a snatch and grab mission for John van 't Schip's men who managed to win their first match in six attempts away from AAMI Stadium.
Starting Line-Ups
NJ Ben Kennedy (gk), Adam D'Apuzzo, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Ljubo Milicevic, Ben Kantarovski (Petrovski 77'), Kasey Wehrman, Ruben Zadkovich, Tarek Elrich, Labinot Haliti (Fiorentini 90'), Marko Jesic (Patafta 68'), Ali Abbas
Subs - Matthew Nash (gk), Sasho Petrovski (77'), Marcello Fiorentini (90'), Kaz Patafta (68')
MH Clint Bolton (gk), Michael Marrone, Michael Beauchamp, Matt Thompson (Colosimo 80'), Gerald Sibon, Rutger Worm (Hoffman 89'), Wayne Srhoj, Josip Skoko, Nick Kalmar (Babalj 71'), Aziz Behich, Adrian Zahra
Subs - Peter Zois (gk), Simon Colosimo (80'), Jason Hoffman (89'), Eli Babalj (71')
