In a 19-minute period, the Melbourne Heart have put three goals past the Newcastle Jets to secure a solid victory at home. Coach John Van't Schip was under a lot of pressure leading up to this match, with only 3 points from 7 matches. A win for the Heart was a must to crawl their way off the bottom of the ladder, which they have done. This now leaves Glamour strip side Gold Coast United lost at sea at the bottom of the ladder.
All three goals came from three former members of cross-city rival Melbourne Victory, in Fred, Mate Dugandzic and Aziz Behich.
The first Melbourne Heart goal came from a handy pass by Fred how found substitute Eli Babalj in the box. Babalj beat Taylor Regan and a swooping Topor-Stanley with a nice piece of possession and found a hooking Fred whose shot rocketed pass Kennedy.
The Heart extended there lead to 2 goals in the 75th minute after what can only be described as a back pass you wouldn't expect to see in the under 13s at the Brunswick Zebras. Newcastle left back Tarek Elrich had pressure applied, he than back pass the ball but missed his target of Topor-Stanley. Mate Dugandzic bounced on the ball and drew more blood. That takes Dugandzic to a tally of three goals for the season, all scored against the Jets in their two matches.
The final wing clipper for the Jets came in the 85th minute through lovely work from Aziz Behich. He beat his man; substitute Ben Kantarovski twice, a slotted a non-preferred right foot past the keeper.
With Simon Colosimo suspended and both David Williams and Jonatan Germano being dropped from the side, the Melbourne Heart brought in Jason Hoffman to play in the midfield, Matthew Thompson played reluctantly at Centre Back until the introduction of Adrian Madaschi and skipper Fred comes back into the starting line-up.
The side played a lot more cohesively. After comments during the week by coach Van't Schip that the side will be playing Dutch Total Football, the side displayed the glamorised style this afternoon.
The Newcastle Jets did not look like a side, which was sitting second on the ladder before the start of this round. There was no real structure to there play,
and never rarely threaten to trouble the Melbourne Heart goalkeeper Clint Bolton.
The Heart now travel to the Gold Coast and take on bottom of the ladder Gold Coast United, who are as desperate to climb the ladder as the Heart were this week. They will also miss three players due to Olyroos commitments.
Newcastle's task doesn't get much easier, hosting the red-hot Brisbane Roar, which could see them slip further down the ladder.