North Queensland Fury have kept their season alive by coming from behind to defeat Newcastle Jets 2-1 in their rescheduled Round 25 fixture. North Queensland Fury: 2 (Chris Grossman '39, Chris Tadrosse '80) Newcastle Jets: 1 (Matt Thompson '19) Venue: Dairy Farmers Stadium Crowd: approx. 5,000
In humid conditions in Townsville, the visitors hit the front in the 19th minute of the match that was postponed from Saturday night when skipper Matt Thompson hit a brilliant goal after a the ball was knocked into his path from a Jin-Hyung Song corner. The departing Jets skipper found space in the area as the bouncing ball came at him and turned with a well-struck shot that rattled past Justin Pasfield in goal.
Newcastle had a great chance to go two goals up when Jobe Wheelhouse advanced in the area with the ball but he scuffed his shot and Pasfield was able to throw his body at the ball and make a vital save.
The Fury were able to hit back against the run of play through a brilliant Chris Grossman goal six minutes before the break The build up play from the home side was good and striker Dyron Daal was able to control the ball with his chest despite heavy marking from Jets defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley and put it out in front of Grossman who hit a sweet left-foot shot from just outside the area giving goalkeeper Ben Kennedy no chance.
Both sides were desperate for a winner but few clear cut chances were created during the second half as the weather became much cooler allowing the players to push forward more frequently but both defences were holding out strongly.
In the 80th minute, the Fury hit the lead after Terry Cooke supplied a well-weighted aerial ball for Chris Tadrosse who was in full flight but managed to keep control and knock a left-footed volley at the near post past Kennedy to keep his sides finals chances alive, although more mathematically than anything.
The win allowed the Fury eighth on the table and are now just five points behind the Jets who dropped to sixth position and are just holding on to a finals ticket with two games remaining.
