Newcastle’s escape from an A-League Men home loss against bottom-of-the-table Perth Glory required a late goal from Trent Buhagiar.
Trent Buhagiar’s goal in extra time has Newcastle in a 2-2 A-League Men draw with Perth, preventing them from winning for the first time in five games.
At McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday, the 25-year-old Jets forward scored his first goal of the year to further condemn struggling Glory to suffering.
After defeating the wildly successful Wellington 3-0 in their most recent match, Newcastle was looking to win two straight games for the first time since February.
Before Perth’s trip east, first-year coach Alen Stajcic laid down the law for his struggling team, saying it was time to draw a line in the sand and turn around their dismal season form. All eyes were on Perth to prove themselves.
Stajcic said on Friday, “We know we have a lot of hard work ahead of us and a lot of ground that we have to cover and re-cover.”
“There’s no magic wand, so we just have to keep working hard.”
With the exception of their 2-0 victory over Central Coast, the Glory have conceded at least twice in every game this season, placing them bottom of the table due to frequent mistakes.
Before travelling to Newcastle, they had conceded nine goals in their previous four games as a losing team.
After a brilliant pass from teammate Luke Ivanovic, Adam Taggart’s powerful right foot shot beat Jets keeper Ryan Scott in the 46th minute, cutting the deficit to one goal at the half.
Within ten minutes, Stefan Colakovski doubled down to give the Glory a 2-1 lead after Clayton Taylor, a Newcastle defender, misdirected a back pass.
In the sixty-third minute, Taggart went close to scoring twice, but a VAR review for offside prevented him from doing so.
However, Glory’s hopes were dashed with only one minute remaining in eight minutes of extra time as Buhagiar swept a strike past custodian Cameron Cook to tie the game.
The Jets have won all eight of their previous meetings with Perth, and the last three meetings concluded in 2-all draws prior to this Saturday.
After Mark Beevers fouled Thomas Aquilina, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, a striker for Newcastle, took the early lead on minute 26, scoring his eighth goal in seven games by converting a penalty.draws.
