The Newcastle Jets played out a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory on Friday night

As the clock ticked down a sense of Déjà vu hovered around Hunter Stadium.

Just like the corresponding fixture in January it was wet.

Just like the corresponding fixture back in January, an English woman, Natasha Dowie had the Melbourne Victory up 1-0 and it looked like the match would once again stay that way.

Not this time!

84' Jen Hoy was played in behind the defence. 1v1 with the keeper slotting it into the bottom corner. The Crowd roared with a mixture of relief and delight nuts as Jen Hoy who scored her 4th in as many games.

The Jets would have another clear chance in the dying minutes through fellow American Oyster but her shot was well smothered by Mason-Jones while Dowie had a chance for the visitors but level the scores would stay.

It was the Victory who had the best of the early running with Natasha Dowie looking dangerous as she has done all season getting in behind the Newcastle defence on a number of occasions.

Her hard work paid off in the 18th minute, once again parting the Jets defence before rounding Katelyn Rowland and finishing into an empty net.

For the Jets, it was quite a poor performance by their own admission but along with the weather the 2nd half improved somewhat.

The Jets had several chances and the bulk of possession but were unable to capitalise on that and produce the kind of performance they did in the corresponding fixture in round 2.

Set pieces were also not up to standard with a couple of corners crossing the goal line and reliving the pressure on the Victory defence.

There were flashes of brilliance from Arin Gilliland in particular who on a number of occasions was able to run at and beat defenders, getting shots away and looking dangerous.

But it was Dowie and Hoy who delivered for the two sides. The import strikers are here to score goals for their respective sides and that’s exactly what they’ve done this season as they lead the way with four goals each.

For Newcastle, last season’s problem was scoring goals and were well known for their tight defence. They’ve fixed the goal scoring problem but now have a leaky defence conceding 9 goals so far this season and it’s matches like this that they’d expect to win and must seek to rectify to keep their quest for finals football alive and can’t afford to drop any more points as they head into a tough period of 3 games in 8 days including trips to Adelaide and Perth.

For the Victory, they continue to improve week to week and are surly not too far away from their first win of the season after being held late on in their last two fixtures.

The Victory face a massive task in their next match as they host the red hot Canberra United who come off a 5-1 thumping of Brisbane Roar and look set to be further bolstered by new singing, Matildas captain Lisa De Vanna.

They Jets are back at home on Boxing Day, a first for the W-League when they take on the Western Sydney Wanderers who will have their tails up after their upset win over Melbourne City.

MATCH DETAILS

Newcastle Jets 1 (Jen Hoy 84’)

Melbourne Victory 1 (Natasha Dowie 18’)

Friday 16 December 2016

Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium

Kick-Off: 5:20PM (Local)

Referee: Rachel Mitchenson

Newcastle Jets: Katelyn Rowland (gk), Sophie Nenadovic (Elizabeth Copus-Brown 72’), Megan Oyster, Arin Gilliland, Cassidy Davis, Gema Simon (c), Emma Stanbury (Ashlee Brodigan 57’), Jen Hoy, Tara Pender, Jenna Kingsley (Grace McIntyre 46’), Clare Wheeler

Substitutes – Claire Coelho (gk)

Cautions – Megan Oyster 26’

Melbourne Victory: Bethany Mason-Jones (gk), Alexandra Natoli, Alexandra Cheal (Alexandra Gummer 78’), Annabel Martin, Natasha Dowie, Christine Nairn (c), Laura Spiranovic (Melindaj Barbieri 58’), Samantha Johnson, Gulcan Koca (Ayesha Norrie 76’), Kirsty Yallop, Kariah White

Substitutes – Emily Kenshole (gk)

Cautions – none