Emile Heskey and the Newcastle Jets spoiled Sydney FC's home season opener with an entertaining 3-2 victory at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday evening.
Italian superstar Alessandro Del Piero showed his quality with a sublime first-half free-kick that levelled the contest at 1-1 and had a Sydney record crowd of 35,419 on their feet.
But the hosts' terrible defence was punished with goals by fellow marquee man Heskey, Ryan Griffiths and promising winger Craig Goodwin.
Blake Powell scored a goal on debut to make for an interesting final 15 minutes, but the Jets held on for their first win of the season.
Sydney has now lost both of its matches after going down 2-0 to the Phoenix in Wellington last week.
"We made an improvement, but not from the first minute. We had to take a goal before we started to play," Del Piero told Fox Sports.
The Jets on the other hand made fantastic strides after a 2-0 home loss to Adelaide last week.
"That was probably one the hardest shifts we've put in I think. A lot of character in that win and we'll build from here," Jets captain Jobe Wheelhouse told Grandstand, comparing the atmosphere as similar to that of the 2008 grand final played at the same stadium.
"You don't need to be a rocket science to realise we were below par last week and we needed to come out and make a statement."
Griffiths snatched an opportunistic goal when Sydney's defence was slow to react and clear from a corner in the 12th minute.
Del Piero appeared to be worth every cent invested in him by the Sky Blues when he used his cultured right foot to curl up and over the wall and past a flailing Ben Kennedy in the Newcastle goal to equalise.
Not to be left out, Heskey struck a lovely volley in the shadows of half-time after some great build-up by Griffiths.
Despite both Del Piero and Heskey finding the back of the net, it was Goodwin who impressed on the big stage, delivering Newcastle's third with a terrific chipped finish.
"He was best on ground tonight and he was probably best on ground for us last week," Wheelhouse said.
"He is developing his game really well and I think he is at the best club to do that.
"Dutchy [coach Gary van Egmond] brings on a lot of young boys and he is just one of them."
Wheelhouse also praised Heskey, who worked hard up front as a target man.
"He is going to be a handful. Most defences will find it hard to take on what he brings to our team," Wheelhouse added.
Newcastle: 3 (R Griffiths 12', E Heskey 41', C Goodwin 62')
Sydney: 2 (A Del Piero 27', B Powell 74')
Tags: australian-football-league, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia, newcastle-2300 First posted October 13, 2012 19:41:49