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Newcastle Jets
Newcastle climbed off the bottom of the A-League in spectacular fashion with a convincing 3-1 win over Sydney FC at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
The Jets inflicted second-placed Sydney's third straight loss and jumped to seventh as coach Branko Culina enjoyed a sweet win over his former employers.
English striker Michael Bridges scored twice against his old club while outgoing Jets captain Matt Thompson made it 3-0 before Alex Brosque grabbed a late consolation for Sydney.
The win capped an eventful week for Culina, who was fined $3000 by Football Federation Australia for labelling his fellow A-League teams "shit" following his side's 1-0 loss to Wellington last week.
The coach bravely opted for an attacking 3-4-3 formation in a bid to take the game to Sydney and it paid dividends despite the home side dominating the opening 10 minutes.
Young Socceroos midfielder Rhyan Grant should have opened the scoring for Sydney in only the second minute when he was played into space by a lovely Steve Corica through ball, but he put his shot wide.
Corica, returning to the starting line-up from a hamstring injury, caused the Jets plenty of early problems and put another chance on a platter for Mark Bridge which was also wasted.
Newcastle looked to have taken the lead when Bridges headed in from close range in the 11th minute but Thompson was correctly ruled offside in the lead-up.
But Bridges did get the opener with a well-taken penalty in the 24th minute after Grant brought down Jets midfielder Jin-Hyung Song with a clear-cut foul.
Sydney could have gone into halftime two down if not for a fortuitous piece of 'keeping from Clint Bolton to deny Sean Rooney with his head.
Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka introduced marquee striker John Aloisi after halftime, but his side fell further behind when Bridges netted his second in the 51st minute.
Thompson beat of a challenge from Simon Colosimo and played Bridges into space with an inch-perfect through ball, before the former Leeds striker showed plenty of composure to slot his shot past Bolton.
Thompson, who will join Melbourne Heart next season, then got on the scoresheet himself in the 58th minute when he finished off a lovely team move involving Rooney and an excellent one-touch pass from Bridges.
Sydney gave the 10,114 home fans some faint hope when Brosque turned in a clever ball from Aloisi in the 75th minute but they failed to find the back of the net again in a loss that left Melbourne five points clear atop the ladder.
