Sydney Take Back a Share of A-League Lead
Vitezslav Lavicka's side overcame the unavailability of five first team players at the Sydney Football Stadium to snap a two-game losing streak and move alongside United on 13 competition points after seven rounds.
Sydney produced a much-improved performance from recent weeks but may not have escaped with all three points had the Jets not been so wasteful with their chances.
Newcastle coach Branko Culina was clearly a frustrated man after the match and could not resist taking a swipe at his former club and Lavicka, even claiming foreign coaches brought no more to the A-League than their local counterparts.
"There was only one team that really deserved to win that game," Culina said.
"I don't care what their coach says and the fact that he's on $500,000 and I'm on 50 bucks or whatever it is.
"If that's what the foreigners are going to bring to this game let's have more local coaches."
Having capitalised on Gold Coast's shock 3-0 loss to Central Coast on Saturday night, Lavicka is still far from comfortable with Sydney's position.
"We are happy that we won today but I have to say the A-League is very equal," Lavicka said.
"I watched the game - Central Coast against Gold Coast - the league is very good quality."
Despite sharing the lead for much of the opening rounds, both Sydney and Gold Coast have little breathing space at the top of the competition.
The Mariners (11 pts) are now only two points behind following their best performance in recent memory while Perth (10 points) rocketed into fourth spot with a 4-2 win over Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night.
Brisbane are on nine points, alongside Melbourne, who scored a deserved 2-0 win over Adelaide United on Friday,.
Adelaide and the Jets are on eight while Wellington (six) and North Queensland (five) are still within touch of their rivals after playing out a 1-all draw in New Zealand on Sunday.
The result was a heartbreaking one for the Phoenix, with the Fury equalising deep into injury time through substitute Chris Grossman to extend their unbeaten run to four matches.
A-League Results and Standings Round 7
MELBOURNE VICTORY 2 (Nick Ward 7m, Grant Brebner 90m) bt ADELAIDE UNITED 0 at Hindmarsh Stadium. Crowd: 15,038. Referee: Strebre Delovski.
CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 3 (Nicky Travis 26m, Matt Simon 54m, John Hutchinson 70m) bt GOLD COAST UNITED 0 at Bluetongue Stadium. Crowd: 7,934. Referee: Matthew Breeze.
WELLINGTON PHOENIX 1 (Leo Bertos 6m) drew NORTH QUEENSLAND FURY 1 (Chris Grossman 90+4m) at Westpac Stadium. Crowd: 9,713. Referee: Peter Green.
SYDNEY FC 2 (Mark Bridge 26m, Steve Corica 55m pen) bt NEWCASTLE JETS 1 (Matt Thompson 37m) at Sydney Football Stadium. Crowd: 10,357. Referee: Ben Williams.
PERTH GLORY 4 (Josh McCloughan 1m og, Wayne Srhoj 41m, Branko Jelic 61m, Liam Reddy 75m og) bt BRISBANE ROAR 2 ( Henrique 50m, Serginho van Dijk 65m) at Suncorp Stadium. Crowd: 7,549. Referee: Chris Beath.
A-League P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Gold Coast United 7 4 1 2 14 8 6 13
2 Sydney FC 7 4 1 2 9 6 3 13
3 Central Coast Mariners 7 3 2 2 8 4 4 11
4 Perth Glory 7 3 1 3 12 10 2 10
5 Brisbane Roar 7 2 3 2 12 12 0 9
6 Melbourne Victory 7 2 3 2 9 9 0 9
7 Adelaide United 7 2 2 3 6 9 -3 8
8 Newcastle Jets 7 2 2 3 7 11 -4 8
9 Wellington Phoenix 7 1 4 2 8 10 -2 7
10 North Queensland Fury 7 1 3 3 8 14 -6 6
LEADING GOALSCORERS
9: Shane Smeltz (Gold Coast)
5: Serginho van Dijk (Brisbane)
4: Branko Jelic (Perth), Robbie Fowler (North Queensland)
3: Henrique (Brisbane), Carlos Hernandez (Melbourne), Matt Simon (Mariners), Archie Thompson (Melbourne), John Aloisi (Sydney)
