A-League Review: 20,000th goal helps Newcastle Jets to shock comeback

Two goals in the last 10 minutes saw the Newcastle Jets stun Western Sydney Wanderers to claim a 2-2 draw in Sunday’s A-League clash at Spotless Stadium.

Aritz Borda headed in Dimas Delgado’s cross midway through the first half to put the home side ahead, before the captain fired a penalty kick down the middle of Jack Duncan’s goal after a blatant handball by Ben Kantarovski.

Wanderers were in complete control and should have made it 3-0 when Jumpei Kusukami went through one-on-one only to be denied by Duncan, but a late capitulation allowed the visitors to snatch a point.

First, captain Nigel Boogaard headed in Andrew Hoole’s free-kick on 81 minutes to halve the deficit with the 20,000th goal scored in the history of the A-League.

Just seven minutes later, goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne fouled Hoole on the edge of the area after rushing out to try to intercept a pass, and the keeper’s error was compounded when he allowed the former Sydney FC winger’s free-kick to squirm through his grasp and into the bottom corner.

The Jets now sit fourth with five point from three games, one ahead of Wanderers in sixth.

In the earlier clash, Sydney continued their 100 per cent record thanks to an injury-time winner from Milos Ninkovic against Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium.

The form book pointed to a straightforward victory for Graham Arnold’s side, who had won their opening two games 4-0, while Phoenix had suffered two defeats without scoring a goal.

It proved to be a tense contest in the end, however, with the home side twice having a goal ruled out for offside, with Danny Vukovic’s disallowed strike an especially close call.

But the league leaders snatched maximum points in the second minute of injury time, as Ninkovic slotted home from close range after Matt Simon headed down Michael Zullo’s simple delivery.