The Newcastle Jets have maintained their recent run of good form in the Hyundai A-League with a convincing 1-0 win over the Wellington Phoenix in front of a season-best crowd of 12,147 at EnergyAustarlia Stadium on Saturday night.
The Jets enjoyed the majority of possession and territory in the first half but weren't able to capitalise on a number of half chances. But a swift flowing movement in the 55th minute saw Marko Jesic score his third goal of the season and hand all three points to the Newcastle side.
The win moves Newcastle up into seventh place above the Phoenix and Glory on goal difference while Wellington slips to eighth place.
The Jets had the first real opportunity of the match in the 23rd minute when a Kasey Wehrman corner found Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who headed just over the crossbar.
Newcastle threatened again moments later some via clever play from impressive guest signing Francis Jeffers, who took the ball to the byline before back-heeling to Elrich, who swung the ball back into the path of Jesic whose his shot from 10 metres was blocked on the line by Ben Sigmund.
The Jets had another chance five minutes later when some enterprising play down the right wing between Elrich and Ali Abbas created space inside the penalty area for an unmarked Jesic, who took the ball towards goal before dragging his shot past the far post.
The Phoenix enjoyed the better start to the second half as they created a few half chances primarily down the right side of the park through Troy Hearfield, Nicky Ward and Leo Bertos.
But it was the Jets who broke the deadlock in the 55th minute with some lovely passing. Ben Kantarovski found space in the middle of the park before finding Abbas on the left flank. The Iraqi native provided a nice through ball for Jesic who took the ball in the area before propping, turning and shooting a curling right-foot shot that skimmed off the far post and into the corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Jesic went close again just a few moments later when he was put into an acre of space by a deft ball from Jeffers but this time the young Newcastle striker fired his shot from the edge of the area just wide of the far post.
The Phoenix threw everything at the Jets in the final 10 minutes in the hope of salvaging a draw and Ifill and Mirjan Pavlovic threatened with headers in the box, but the Jets defence was up to the challenge and managed to shut out the visitors for their third win of the season.
Newcastle Jets 1 (Jesic 55)
Wellington Phoenix 0
Crowd 12,147 At EnergyAustralia Stadium