The football gods finally smiled on Maitland’s hard work with a 2-0 win against Newcastle Jets Youth and results in other game falling in favour beyond their wildest dreams.
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The change rooms were packed to the rafters as the Magpies celebrated not only their hard-won victory but losses to closest rivals for fourth spot on the ladder Hamilton Olympic and Charlestown City Blues.
Hamilton’s 1-0 loss to Edgeworth was on the cards, but the Weston Bears pulled off the upset of the year with a 3-0 win against Charlestown. The results give Maitland a three-point break on Charlestown, five points on the Jets and six points on Hamilton who have a midweek catch-up game against Valentine before hosting the Magpies on Sunday.
New signing Justin Micallef had a dream debut for his new club opening the scoring with a header inside the box which gave the Jets keeper no chance.
Micallef’s goals had more than a touch of Timmy Cahill about it, Sean Pratt’s celebration soon after was straight out of the Cahill play book.
Pratt raced to the corner and punched the corner flag after being played through by a wonderful pass by the hard-working Tom Duggan.
An energetic and enterprising target up forward, Micallef said he was exhausted after his first game in three months after the finish of the Spanish third division with CF Lliria.
“Hopefully I can be part of a successful finish to the season and play in the finals,” the Central Coast based 20-year-old said.
“All three of us at the front worked really hard and it came together well for us.
Micallef and Pratt have come into the side to bolster the Magpies ranks after they were hit with season-ending injuries to Josh Dutton-Black and Matt Comerford and the departure of young guns Chris Fayers who is on a playing trial in Malta and James Thomspon who leaves later this month to play college soccer in the US.
Magpies coach Mick Bolch was delighted with the performance of Pratt, Micallef and Duggan, particularly with Matt Thompson missing through injury and Ryan Clarke rested early with soreness in his hamstring.
The defence was outstanding again, but Alex Read will miss a week after collecting his fifth yellow card.
The other great news for Maitland was the return of midfielder Matt Swan, who came on in the second-half and showed his class despite lacking match fitness.
“Matt showed some really good signs and will only get better. We need him, as we’re not exactly sure how long Matt Thompson will be out and Clarkey has a bit of hamstring soreness,” Bolch said.
“Unfortunately, Alex Read collected a fifth yellow card and will miss next week against OIympic, which is shaping as our most important game of the year.”