After 87 A-League appearances, Western Sydney Wanderers’ midfielder Rashid Mahazi found his first ever A-League goal on Saturday. Having featured in four campaigns with Melbourne Victory, the 26-year-old nodded in German marquee Alex Baumjohann’s set piece for the opening goal of Wanderers’ thrilling encounter with Newcastle Jets.
However, Mahazi’s opening goal proved all but academic for the Wanderers, with the Jets’ Angus Thurgate stealing the show, netting his first A-League goal to seal a dramatic come-from-behind 3-2 win for Newcastle.
The 19-year-old from Port Macquarie found his way through on goal, courtesy of a fortuitous deflection, in the 81st minute and tucked away a superb finish into the top corner to keep the Jets’ slim hopes of finals football alive.
Thurgate’s teammate Dimi Petratos celebrated his 50th appearance for the Novocastrians with a fantastic effort direct from a corner to give Newcastle a 2-1 lead. While the effort was chalked down as an own goal to Vedran Janjetovic, it was Petratos’ swerving set piece that caused havoc for Janjetovic, who could only parry the effort into his own net.
Petratos has now played 174 matches in the A-League competition across Sydney FC, Brisbane Roar and the Jets, with 33 goals to his name.
On Friday night in Melbourne City’s 4-1 demolition of Brisbane Roar, Rostyn Griffiths scored his first A-League goal for City and his first in the A-League since April 2017.
Griffiths, 31, managed to put the faintest of touches on French winger Florin Berenguer’s cross, directing the ball into the corner past Roar’s ‘keeper Jamie Young.
Griffiths’ teammate, Dutch defender Bart Schekenveld, brought up his 50th appearance for Melbourne City in the commanding win, with the influential central defender having shaped as one of the competition’s best defenders since joining from Eredivise outfit, PEC Zwolle.
In addition to the above milestones, Perth Glory’s Dino Djulbic ended a long A-League goal drought extending back to 2015 with a goal in Glory’s 3-0 win over Central Coast Mariners.
While traditionally not employed as a goal-scoring figurehead – Glory have plenty of other goal-scoring options in the front-third – Djulbic has always posed a threat at set pieces and finally scored for the first time for Glory since the 2014/15 season.
Towering above his opponent, Djublic found the top corner, rising to nod Neil Kilkenny’s corner kick past Ben Kennedy in the Mariners’ goal. In 215 career appearances, Djulbic has found the net 19 times in total.
Another defender who rarely finds the net, Adelaide United’s Michael Marrone scored his second goal in his 204th appearance. His first ever A-League goal came in the 2015/16 season, in which United won the A-League Championship and Premiers Plate.
Marrone’s goal helped United secure an important win over Wellington Phoenix, who – despite being one of the most prolific teams this season in front of goal – could only reply once in the 3-1 defeat. Republic of Ireland striker Cillian Sheridan scored that goal, his first goal for the ‘Nix. Sheridan finally found the next in his 13th appearance for Wellington, who have had David Williams, Roy Krishna and Sarpreet Singh suppling the majority of the team’s goals this season.
Meanwhile in England, Australian goalkeeper Mat Ryan became the first Australian to make the semi-finals of the FA Cup since Mile Jedinak at Crystal Palace. Ryan fell short of becoming the sixth Australian to feature in the 147-year-old competition’s Final, with Joe Marston, Craig Johnston, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Jedinak having previously played in tournament’s finale.
