The longest off-season in world football is slowly coming to an end, with today marking 50 days until we open our A-League Men’s season.
Your City boys return to league football on Saturday October 19, travelling to the Hunter to face Newcastle Jets in what shapes up to be a cracking first match of the season.
While we continue to wait for the day though, why not look back at five of our most fond memories from Newcastle away!
MAZZEO SCORES ON STARTING DEBUT
What better place to start than our most recent trip to Newcastle.
It was all about then 18-year-old winger Ben Mazzeo on that day.
A week after impressing on his professional debut, Aurelio Vidmar showed a great deal of faith in the Academy product – handing him the first senior start of his career.
12 minutes was all it would take of Mazzeo to repay the faith. After seeing teammate Marin Jakolis win the ball back in a dangerous area, the young winger drifted to the back post and met the cross with a bullet header to open the scoring.
It was a professional performance from City to keep the Jets at bay before Jamie Maclaren struck in the second half to ensure the three points were safe.
JMAC BRACE HEADLINES STRONG WIN
February 2022 saw a star-studded City outfit take to the pitch at McDonald Jones Stadium. Now-Socceroos Connor Metcalfe and Aiden O’Neill were patrolling the middle of the park, while the Leckie-Nabbout-Maclaren front three were at their lethal best.
It was Florin Berenguer though who would open scoring after some beautiful combination play by Leckie and Nabbout, the former adding his name to the scoresheet in the second half for his first City goal.
That came courtesy of a Maclaren assist on either side of a brace to the greatest goalscorer in A-Leagues history. That said, our former number 9 probably had to buy Metcalfe a coffee the following morning after being the beneficiary of a huge deflection from the now St. Pauli stars long-range strike.
LUNA INSPIRES DOMINANT PERFORMANCE, GLOVER GRABS CLEAN SHEET ON CITY DEBUT
Adrian Luna is a name all City fans look back on fondly, and the Uruguayan midfield maestro produced some of his best on a warm December evening back in 2019.
Prior to kick-off, the news was all about Tommy Glover though, the fresh-faced keeper brought into the City XI for the first time at the expense of Dean Bouzanis.
Two minutes was all it took for Glover’s nerves to be eased as City cruised to an early lead, a pair of City heroes in Craig Noone and Luna combining beautifully in the final third.
Luna had his second before the half-hour mark had even been reached, reacting quickly to head home a well-placed cross from A-League journeyman, Josh Brillante.
Javier Cabrera scored his sole league goal moments into the second half, before – surprise, surprise – Maclaren got on the scoresheet to round out a dominant win and set another new league record in the process.
That goal took him to double figures for the 2019/20 season, becoming the fastest player in league history to hit that mark, doing so in just six games.
Up the other end of the pitch, it was a City debut to remember for Glover, making six saves en route to his first clean sheet in the A-League.
MUSCAT SLAMS HOME THE WINNER AT THE DEATH
Before he was bursting down the AAMI Park wings in City blue, Andy Nabbout was often a thorn in our side.
This was certainly the case back in December 2017, with the former Jet tucking home the opener as rain pelted down in Newcastle.
The lead would stand for less than ten minutes though after Ross McCormack found the equaliser from the spot.
City fans would’ve been screaming at their TVs back home in Melbourne when Bruce Kamau was taken down in the box in the 74th minute, but this time around, the referee decided against awarding a spot-kick.
The drama continued right until the dying stages when one of our most unlikely heroes stood up when we needed it most. Maltese international Manny Muscat was the man on that occasion, firing home his one and only City goal after some lovely work from Club legend Scott Jamieson in the buildup.
KOREN MAKES HIS MARK
Aaron Mooy. Robbie Koren. Damian Duff.
A pretty handy trio if we say so ourselves… These were also the names on the scoresheet on the 30th of December 2014, leading us to a powerful 5-2 away win.
Duff won an early penalty with a spritely run into the box which Mooy was able to duly convert past Ben Kennedy.
Koren and Duff then both added their names to the scoresheet to cruise into half time 3-0 ahead, virtually stitching up the result with 45 still to play.
The foot certainly wasn’t taken off the pedal after the break though, Koren arriving at the back post for our fourth in the 63rd minute – and then completing his hattrick 10 minutes later, moments after a consolation Jets goal.
