A last-gasp penalty from Shane Smeltz secured Wellington Phoenix a 2-2 draw at reigning champions Newcastle Jets on October 6, in a Hyundai A-League match played in stifling Labour Day mid-afternoon heat at the EnergyAustralia Stadium.
The home team almost began the match in spectacular fashion, a first minute raid sparked by the lively Song Jin-Hyung culminating in a low Adam D'Apuzzo drive which Mark Paston did well to smother low to his left.
Sadly, that proved to be one of very few highlights in a generally sterile first forty-five minutes, as both teams struggled to come to terms with the insufferable heat in front of the 8,492 Novocastrians in attendance.
Wellington had a brief flurry around the twenty minute mark which brought to game to life, Tim Brown's rasping twenty yarder being beaten away well by Ante Covic the first shot in anger fired by the visiting team in the match.
Their second rattled the woodwork. Shane Smeltz swooped on some ponderous play by Jobe Wheelhouse and raced clear of the defender. Into the penalty area he strode before side-stepping a challenge and lashing a low shot past the diving Covic and against the base of the post, the rebound cannoning straight to the prone goalkeeper.
The game came to life well and truly in the six minutes before half-time. Noel Spencer's probing ball forward found Song dashing through Wellington's defence, and he headed the ball round the stranded figure of Mark Paston, who had advanced outside his penalty area.
Tony Lochhead was on hand to spare his 'keeper's blushes, but it was down the fullback's flank where Newcastle probed again, two minutes later. This time, Edmundo Zura slipped Matt Thompson in behind the Wellington rearguard, and his pull-back rewarded the well-timed run of Jesper Hakansson, whose thumping fifteen yard volley flashed narrowly over the crossbar.
Wellington responded through Brown, who won the ball in midfield and promptly fed Adam Kwasnik. He worked a one-two with Smeltz before darting into the penalty area and lashing a first-time drive low past Covic's near post, to ensure the teams would turn around without troubling the scoreboard operator.
Song's bid to do so, three minutes into the second half, certainly alerted Paston, who dealt well with the stinging twenty yarder. The visitors turned to the league's oldest player, Vaughan Coveny, to provide their response, and his surging run into the penalty area earned Wellington a spot-kick, after Daniel Piorkowski clumsily felled the veteran.
Smeltz calmly sent Covic the wrong way with his twelve yard effort - 1-0 Wellington, after 52 minutes.
Their advantage was to be short-lived. Newcastle sought a swift riposte via a Song free-kick, which was headed clear to D'Apuzzo. He steered the ball in towards Zura, whose acrobatic overhead kick flew over the angle of near post and crossbar.
When the home team next raided, the outcome was far more to their liking. Jade North thumped the ball forward from just outside his penalty area to Zura, who edged out Durante in an aerial duel.
The ball fell to Tarek Elrich, who jinked inside before uncorking a beauty - a twenty-five yard curler which arced over the flailing figure of Paston and into the far corner of the net - 1-1 on the hour.
Back came Wellington, Brown again at the heart of much that they did which was good. On this occasion, he played a crisp pass into Smeltz inside the penalty area. The striker?s cheeky back-heel opened up Newcastle's defence, and Lochhead strode onto the ball before executing a low cross, which ricocheted off the legs of a lunging defender and spun agonisingly across the face of goal and narrowly past the far post.
The visitors were set back on their heels in the 68th minute, however, by a goal which had more than a hint of offside about it. Thompson pinged the ball forward from inside his own half, probing the gap between Wellington's defence and Paston to great effect.
Zura, who was the nearest player to Wellington's goalkeeper when the ball was played, quickly darted in behind Durante and Dodd and, as Paston approached, headed the ball square to substitute Kaz Patafta, who gleefully poked the ball home into an unguarded net.
2-1 to the good, Newcastle effectively strangled the life out of the game in the minutes which followed, and it wasn?t until eight minutes from time that Wellington got even a sniff of a chance to equalise.
Daniel whipped in a corner which Covic opted to punch clear, unsuccessfully. His defenders' inability to complete the job presented Michael Ferrante with a shooting chance from twenty-five yards, which thundered through the crowded goalmouth before being deflected for another corner.
Newcastle cleared this, and immediately launched a counter-attack, substitute Marko Jesic releasing Hakansson through the inside left channel. With Patafta perfectly placed in the penalty area to receive and convert a pass, the Danish newcomer selfishly sought the glory for himself, and promptly wasted the chance to clinch the points for the Jets.
Dodd was the player who tidied things up for Wellington, and it was his raking clearance which had Newcastle on the back foot straight away. Covic didn't take kindly to the sight of Smeltz bearing down on goal in pursuit of the ball, and raced out of his area to clear the sphere off the striker's toes before giving his defenders an earful for their loss of concentration.
With two minutes left on the clock, Newcastle were holding firm as Wellington probed for an opening outside their penalty area. The ball squirted wide to Gao Lei-lei, something of a luxury player in a side from a country whose public place great store on an individual's work ethic within and overall contribution to the team.
The Chinese import's penchant for going to ground a little too easily doesn't sit well within this environment, nor with the vast majority of match officials, but when Thompson lined him up with a rugby tackle in the penalty area, referee Craig Zetter couldn't do anything but find in Gao's favour, and unhesitatingly pointed to the spot for the second time in the game.
With a share of the spoils up for grabs, Smeltz and Covic once again eyed each other up from a distance of twelve yards, and it was the Wellington player who held his nerve, lashing his penalty above the diving Covic and into the top corner of the net to clinch a 2-2 draw for Wellington at the home of the reigning Hyundai A-League champions - not a result one would have expected of the visitors as recently as a fortnight ago.