A fast start for John van’t Schip’s men was key as Melbourne City held on to claim all three points with a 2-1 win over Newcastle Jets on Thursday night.
City raced to a two goal advantage inside half an hour, courtesy of a brace from Bruno Fornaroli as the Uruguayan became the fastest player to net 30 goals in the A-League, doing so in just 35 games.
“We have to mix it up and I think we made some good forward runs, we had some good crosses in from both sides,” van’t Schip said.
“Both goals, one was from the right and one was from the left so we have to keep on working on those things because opponents are going to look at us and see how we play and we have to make sure we can attack in different ways.”
Jets could have taken a lead inside four minutes however, but for a sure contender for miss of the season from Danish striker Morten Nordstrand.
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" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> And that stinker from Nordstrand
#MCYvNEW pic.twitter.com/ekwzz4jtO3
— MFootball (@melbfootball) November 10, 2016
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There was a moment of confusion late in the game, as Melbourne City had a brief period of the game with 12 players on the pitch. The numerical advantage came as the result of a mismanaged substitute which saw Tim Cahill remain on the pitch despite his replacement Paulo Retre already having been allowed on the field.
“We had to warn the fourth official (Shaun Evans) that we had 12,” the City manager said. “We were the ones that said stop the game and take him off.”
The game also marked the return of full-back Ivan Franjic, who impressed his coach with a number of marauding runs and crosses to help out in attack.
“We all know that Ivan loves going forward and has a good final product and I think today he showed again that he has that in his game,” he said.
“He played 90 minutes after being away for a long time. He’s strong, he connected well with Bruce (Kamau) and with Anthony (Caceres). The second goal was a good example of that.”