The Newcastle Jets and Perth Glory have played out a 0-0 stalemate in sweltering conditions at Hunter Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Newcastle Jets and Perth Glory have played out a 0-0 stalemate in sweltering conditions at Hunter Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Jets controlled the match throughout and created a number of half chances without being able to convert while the Glory were content to absorb the pressure and attack on the counter.
The Glory were unlucky not to get the all three points as they wasted a couple of clear scoring opportunities.
The Jets took up the impetus in front of a healthy home crowd of 12,383 and instigated a high-pressing game that almost bore fruit when skipper Ruben Zadkovich charged down a clearance from Glory goalkeeper Danny Vukovic only for the ball to ricochet past the near post.
Newcastle continued to apply pressure to the Glory goal with defenders Kew Jaliens and Scott Neville flashing headers narrowly wide of the target from incisive free-kicks into the box from Zadkovich.
The Jets captain looked dangerous on the edge of the box hitting a number of long-range efforts over the crossbar as the sides went to the break deadlocked.
The Glory created the first chance of the second half when Adrian Zahra floated a ball to the back post where Sidnei headed goalward but into the hands of Mark Birighitti.
The Jets wrested back control of proceedings and went close when Sam Gallaway's cross into the box caught the wind, floated over Vukovic's head and hit the crossbar, with Taggart blazing the follow-up shot way over the crossbar.
Newcastle engineered a creative attack down the right flank which enabled Scott Neville to fire a low drive that forced a sharp parried save from Vukovic.
Down the other end the Glory looked dangerous on the counter with the speed and skill of Sidnei causing some problems down the right.
Perth should have snatched the lead midway through the second half when Ryan Edwards pounced on an error from substitute centre back Jacob Pepper and fed the ball to Jamie MacLaren who should have buried his one-on-one chance with Birighitti but only managed to shovel his shot into the advancing Newcastle custodian.
Birighitti was forced to make another sharp save just a few moments later when Sidnei fired a vicious long-range effort that had the Newcastle goalkeeper diving to push the shot around the far post.
Newcastle had a late call for a penalty denied when Nathan Burns appeared to have been brought down in the box by a late sliding tackle from Jack Clisby.
Down the other end MacLaren created a scoring shot on the edge of the box only to see his solid strike swallowed up by Birighitti before Sidnei almost snatched the winner in injury time with a swinging corner that was tipped over the bar to ensure both sides settled for a share of the points.
Newcastle Jets 0 Perth Glory 0 Crowd: 12,383 at Hunter Stadium
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