Wellington Phoenix 1 Newcastle Jets 2: Carney makes the difference

David Carney helped Newcastle Jets to a 2-1 win over Wellington Phoenix in Sunday’s A-League encounter at the Westpac Stadium with a goal and an assist.

The 31-year-old opened the scoring on the half-hour mark with a header, only for Roly Bonevacia to level the scoring via a deflection shortly before half-time.

Roy Krishna had a second-half penalty saved by Jets’ goalkeeper Mark Birighitti, before striker Milos Trifunovic settled the match in the guests’ favour.

The Jets were reduced to 10 men for the last 13 minutes after Nigel Boogaard was shown a red card, but they hung on to bag the full three points.

The away side grabbed the lead after 30 minutes when Lee Ki-je whipped in a fine cross from the left for Carney, who headed home to make it 1-0.

Wellington were not overly impressed with Carney’s goal, however, and restored parity in the dying seconds of the first half. Michael McGlinchey set up Bonevacia and his shot took a deflection off Lee before finding the back of the net.

Krishna should have made it 2-1 for Phoenix when he stepped up to take a penalty after the break, yet Birighitti proved to be too much of an obstacle between the sticks.

The hosts were punished for their profligacy in front of goal when Trifunovic made the most of a Carney pass in the 70th minute to restore his side’s lead.

Boogaard then received his marching orders after he was booked for the second time, but Wellington failed to add a second and salvage a draw.