By Greg Blake
It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Not here and not now. The joyful pre-game revelry of the gathered clan of Alexander faithful had been gradually ground down, granulated and ultimately discarded. The process took 120 harrowing minutes, ending with the slightly cleaner and sharper Newcastle Jets winning the 2025 Australia Cup 3-1 on Saturday night.
A couple of extra time goals capped Newcastle’s come-from-behind triumph, with the final whistle creating a seemingly endless stream of downcast and shattered yellow and black-clad Alexander supporters shuffling out of Lakeside Stadium, most hoping to distance themselves from the soundtrack of the on-field presentation ceremonies.
There were lots of variations on “oh well, they did really well to get here” or “we really missed Sabit Ngor” bandied about. True enough. But for Heidelberg United Alexander supporters this was more an internal search for logic and consolation before accepting a new paradigm.
For weeks on end, through one marvellous success and onto the next adventure, I think we all truly believed that there was no stopping this team from fulfilling a glorious Australia Cup destiny. Even at 2-1 down and deep into the 30 minutes of extra time on Saturday night, not a single Alexander supporter believed the race was run.
When Ben Gibson’s cool finish with five minutes to play put the Jets 3-1 up, you could feel the once not inconsiderable energy of the crowd dissipate. Rapidly. The dream done and dusted. That said, Saturday night’s final was still a beauty. Compelling. For the most part a muscle-flexing arm wrestle featuring massive momentum swings.
Heidelberg United owned the first 20-odd minutes, with irrepressible Anthony Lesiotis leading an almighty cavalry charge which might have opened up an unassailable break.
In the context of the game, Kosta Grozos’ ugly contact to bring down Mo Aidara two minutes in would have drawn an outfield free kick any day of the week. That it happened as Aidara flew into the penalty area yet it didn’t result in a spot kick remains an inexplicably appalling call. Possibly a game decider. And not the final controversy of the night.
Fletcher Fulton tested Jets’ keeper, James Delianov, as did Aidara with an ambitious hook shot, before the Warriors claimed a 7th minute lead. Asahi Yokokawa’s free kick from the left looping beyond the far post, to where Ben Collins stretched to angle a header back into the hot spot. Ryan Lethlean leapt over the milling crowd and bounced a header over the line to put Alexander on the board.
Delianov bravely threw himself at the feet of Bul Juach on 13 minutes – after a perfect Max Bisetto set-up – to keep barnstorming Alexander from extending their lead before Yaren Sozer got his first serious touch of the game on the quarter hour. The Jets settled and finally turned back the rising tide with a 20th minute slightly deflected equaliser from Max Burgess.
Level at half-time, a Newcastle header into the side netting at one end was rapidly followed up with a Fulton to Jay McGowen to Juach combination – thwarted again by Dalianov – at the other. Not once, nor twice, but three times in the course of minutes the Jets swarmed and were only turned away by desperate Warrior numbers shot-blocking inside their own penalty area.
A Jamal Ali spin out of strife signalled another momentum shift, with Alexander returning fire with some heat of its own into the final 20 minutes. Xavier Bertoncello fizzed one just wide for the Jets. Heidelberg answered with Fulton’s sweet right-footer skipping perfectly for a full-throttle Yokakawa, whose pressured effort skewed across the goal face and over the head of an unmarked Juach,
Still at 1-1 after 90 compelling minutes, Newcastle teenager Oscar Fryer produced a stunner to give the Jets a 2-1 lead with still 25 minutes of extra time to come. Ample enough to cram in another goal, two red cards and a second penalty no-call to thwart Heidelberg, this time when the bulky Alexsander Susnjar’s hip and shoulder on Akiel Raffie inside the area sent the Heidelberg substitute tumbling.
A clear free kick anywhere else on the field? My word, yes. Perhaps best measured against Grozos’ second booking and red card a mere five minutes later, for example. Warrior substitute Johnny Apostolopoulos barely had time to settle in before he too was red-carded – presumably for thwarting a clear goalscoring opportunity – and back in the sheds.
The two send offs and Gibson’s game-killing goal came in one scrappy, late five minute spell, the 3-1 scoreline ensuring a Newcastle victory and a steady flow of Alexander supporters towards the exits, all reluctantly accepting – finally – that there would be no fairytale finish, no miracles and no rabbits out of hats. Not on this night, anyway.
Disappointed, of course. With the result, but not the team. Nobody I’ve spoken with since Saturday’s game is anything but super proud of the 2025 playing and coaching staff. It’s been one heck of a ride and it continues this coming weekend with the first games of the fledgling championship series. Alexander hosts old NSL foes Marconi on Sunday.
