The Hyundai A-League play-off hopes of the Newcastle Jets were dealt a blow at EnergyAustralia Stadium on December 30, as they succumbed 3-2 to a Wellington Phoenix combination which kept their own faint top-four prospects alive thanks to a win they just about deserved.
I say just about because the defensive contributions of both teams in this encounter were diabolical! The league's leading goalscorer, Joel Griffiths, would have been like a fox in a henhouse had suspension not deprived Newcastle of their attacking talisman.
Shane Smeltz, Wellington's leading marksman, was exactly that in a Jets rearguard which sorely missed the services of injured defender Andrew Durante, and as well as scoring a goal which saw him draw level with Griffiths at the top of the Golden Boot charts, he led the Jets a merry dance, in tandem with the similarly tireless Vaughan Coveny, who ran himself into the ground against his old club.
It took just twelve seconds for Smeltz to make an impact on proceedings, pouncing on an under-hit Stephen Laybutt back-pass and forcing Ante Covic to hurtle off his line in order to thwart the in-form marksman at his feet.
That defensive lapse by Laybutt set the standard for both teams, and there were numerous instances in the minutes which followed of defending which was far inferior to this particular episode - the Wellington trio of Tony Lochhead, Kristian Rees and the decidedly inept Steven Old were all guilty of cringe-worthy contributions which made Laybutt?s blunder appear ordinary by comparison.
Perhaps, given it is the Christmas season, the defensive units of both teams felt a need to enter into the spirit of things by gifting chances to their opponents. Referee Strebre Delovski was far less festive, however, when it came to awarding penalties.
Unless it was so blatant that it couldn't possibly be avoided, the official refrained from pointing to the spot on a number of occasions, with both teams left aggrieved by his willingness to allow play to continue when they felt they had an open and shut case for a spot-kick.
Ahmad Elrich was decidedly upset in the ninth minute when he found himself fulfilling the role of the meat in a Newcastle sandwich inside the eighteen yard box, having been picked out by Coveny. The official wasn't having a bar of his "I'm a little teapot" routine afterwards.
Seven minutes later, however, a quickly taken free-kick by Elrich brought Wellington far greater reward. Vince Lia responded to his team-mate's initiative, and fired in an inviting cross with which Newcastle failed to deal. Tim Brown played the ball through to Rees, who had gone forward for the set-piece, and his low cross invited Coveny to chance his arm.
The striker's deft lob deceived Covic, only to hit the crossbar. As it dropped, Smeltz hurtled into the goalmouth, and from three yards, he couldn't miss - 1-0 Wellington.
Finding themselves behind on the scoreboard, and in front of a bumper 15,107-strong crowd, Newcastle took a few minutes to respond to the setback, with Denni's twenty-five yarder in the twentieth minute following the trajectory of James Holland's twenty yarder seventeen minutes earlier - over the top.
But the Brazilian, whose defensive contribution to this match rivalled that of Old in its ineptness, attempted to make amends with a 21st minute pass which released Scott Tunbridge down the right. His cross was swept past the near post by Holland, who was by some distance the home team's star turn.
The game's lone marksman, to this point, was also its best performed player, and in the 22nd minute, Smeltz made a fool of Laybutt once more before powering into the penalty area. With the unmarked Elrich to his right, the striker suddenly found himself without the ball, thanks to a splendidly timed challenge by Matt Thompson - a real goal-saver.
Newcastle stormed downfield, and a succession of corners from Holland had Wellington?s rearguard creaking. From one, a Denni piledriver was blocked more by good luck than good management, while the entire episode afforded evidence aplenty of why the visitors boast the largest tally in the goals against column.
It was soon to be added to. Thompson's 28th minute ball forward saw Rees hesitate in his attempt to deal with it, and in letting it bounce, the defender let in the hitherto inconspicuous Mark Bridge.
The victim of mindless booing from some Newcastle "faithful" soon became their hero once again when burying a penalty past Glen Moss, who was fortunate to remain on the park after he took out the striker in the area, with daylight between them and the goal.
Referee Delovski's keenness to keep the contest an eleven-a-side one was tested even more severely inside the next ten minutes by a raking Lochhead challenge from behind on Adam Griffiths which left the defender in a great deal of discomfort. Wellington's shaky rearguard knew how he felt. Soon after the equaliser, a twelve yard bullet header by Laybutt, from a Holland free-kick, only just cleared Moss crossbar, while in the 42nd minute, the goalkeeper stood his ground superbly to deny Denni in a one-on-one situation, after the midfielder had strode through a mile-wide gap in the heart of the visitors back-line.
Prior to it, Wellington had twice more ridden their luck, a result of awful defending on both occasions. Holland exploited a Lochhead blunder to break down the right and cross for Tunbridge, but the striker got it all wrong - even his air-shot lacked finesse!
The visitors swiftly stormed downfield, as you do when the jet-heeled Elrich is in full flight, and he whipped in a cross intended for Smeltz but which Jade North - the best-performed defender on the park - got to first.
Seconds later, Newcastle were raiding again, this time down the left, where Denni and Thompson combined to set up a chance for Holland, only for the ball to ricochet to safety off the retreating figure of Old, who knew not a lot about it.
In the shadows of the half-time whistle, Covic grabbed a header from Smeltz following another cross from Elrich, who had been released by Felipe Campos. Both Wellington players were to play a significant role in proceedings inside the first six minutes of the second spell, as it was from their respective corners that the game swung the visitors' way.
Prior to their game-changing contributions, Denni grazed the base of Moss' right-hand post after Holland and Bridge had combined to set up the midfielder, while North was forced to concede a corner as Coveny looked to get on the end of a Smeltz delivery.
It was from this corner that Wellington took the lead, in the 49th minute. Felipe's delivery wasnt cleared, and Smeltz turned the ball back into the path of the industrious figure of Michael Ferrante. From the edge of the penalty area, he thundered a low drive through the crowd and into the back of the net, much to Covic's undisguised consternation.
Newcastles keeper was even more upset two minutes later, when Wellington made it 3-1. Elrichs corner picked out Rees on the far post, and his towering header looped over Covic and was over the line before North could attempt to head the sphere to safety.
Within ninety seconds, Old, who joined Wellington from Newcastle, almost gifted his side a way back into the match with a piece of defensive play which would have embarrassed a schoolboy, let alone a fourteen-times-capped All White. But for Rees' timely block, Holland would surely have had a belated Christmas present.
As it was, Hollands resulting corner saw Moss turn a Bridge drive to safety as Newcastle began their bid to chase the game, a bid which gained fresh impetus when Noel Spencer joined the fray on the hour mark. Within a minute, the substitute had drilled a cross-shot across the face of goal, prior to Moss thwarting a Thompson drive.
The goalkeeper did well to keep out a deflected free-kick from Bridge in the 74th minute, two minutes after another substitute, Jason Hoffman, had almost made an instant impact when volleying a clever ball from Bridge past the near post.
The last-mentioned was becoming increasingly prominent as Newcastle sought a lifeline, and was only denied in the 77th minute by a superbly timed tackle from Wellington substitute Richard Johnson, two minutes after Brown had rung the alarm bells among the local supporters with a shot on the turn which flashed past Covic's far post, the surprised 'keeper well beaten by the effort.
In the 81st minute, Newcastle scored the lifeline they had long sought when Tunbridge rose between defenders to head home North's cross, after Holland, Tarek Elrich and the Jets' captain had combined on the right.
In changing the scoreline to 3-2 in the visitors' favour, it set up a grandstand finish, one in which Newcastle were understandably prominent. But for all their pressure, the best chance in the time which remained fell Wellington's way, virtually straight from the resumption.
Coveny somehow found a way past Griffiths on Wellington's left and scythed into the penalty area. Within seconds, he went to ground under a challenge from North, but as team-mate Ahmad Elrich had discovered just nine minutes into the match, referee Delovski wasn't in the least little bit interested when it came to Wellington penalty appeals.
Nor did Newcastle's claims interest him when a Bridge cross appeared to cannon to safety off a visiting forearm as the home team attacked almost incessantly in the time which remained. It was all for nought, however, Wellington having done enough to earn their first three-point haul from the Hunter Valley, thanks to this hard-earned 3-2 win.