Western United was made to pay for not hitting the scoreboard in its 1-0 A-League Men’s loss to the Newcastle Jets on Sunday.
United headed up to Ballarat for the match and while it dominated for much of the performance it wasn’t able to come away with the win.
All of the early play was in United’s attacking third as the home side aimed to bring the pressure on Newcastle from the outset.
United had three early shots that weren’t on target before thinking it had hit the lead through Penha.
Replays showed that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up, and the goal was ruled out.
A goal to the Jets’ Apostolos Stamatelopoulos just before half-time would double United’s pain, as the Jets led at the break.
United came out after half time focused on keeping its dominance going and hitting back on the scoreboard.
The Jets were happy with the score line and set about managing the remainder of the game and sat deep in their defensive structure, limiting the space for United to exploit going forward.
Nikata Rukavytsya came off the bench and injected some energy into the side and provided a piece of quality with a brilliant looping header into the back of the net in the 86th minute, but he was denied a maiden United goal by the offside flag.
The Jets were able to deny United for the rest of the game.
United has one win from its first four games and sits in the bottom two.
There will be no action this week in the A-League as the competition breaks for an international break.
In the A-League Women’s competition, Western United suffered a loss to the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
The Phoenix led 2-0 at half time before extending the lead in the 76th minute through an own goal.
Chloe Logarzo got one back late for United, but the damage was done, with the Phoenix winning 3-1.
