This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The sense of ambush came early, before Melbourne Victory ground through the gears of a steely performance to beat Newcastle 1-0 in the city’s first home A-League grand final.

Victory announced they would stop their rot in the steel city with the earliest goal in grand final history, scored by Kosta Barborouses in the ninth minute.

Ernie Merrick hits out at Melbourne Victory's grand final tactics Read more

It started at the feet of Leroy George who began his locomotive performance down the left touchline for Victory with a long free-kick to James Donachie at the far post. Barbarouses reacted to the centring header and scraped a shot past the left glove of Newcastle keeper Glen Moss, after a deflection off the Jets’ John Koutroumbis.

The air pressure seemed to drop. Three thousand travelling Victory fans erupted and their chanting and drums seemed to match their team’s seizure of the contest.

The visitors grew stronger in the closing stages as the Jets, on the crest of a resurgence from last season’s wooden spoon, fought to fashion a way through a young Victory defence that ultimately aced every test.

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It was Newcastle who sputtered out, and Jets goal poacher Roy O’Donovan signed off with a jab of violence. The Irishman’s 93rd-minute kick to the jaw of Victory keeper Lawrence Thomas was from the kitbag of Connor McGregor.

It earned O’Donovan a red card and left Lawrence’s face swathed in bandages. The 25-year-old keeper was later awarded the Joe Marston medal after a brave, icy display.

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Newcastle’s biggest day in sport in a decade could have been different for the Jets, who tantalised without finding their range in a lightning first half.

The architect of last week’s sensational scorpion kick goal, Riley McGree, commanded the midfield at times, and his in-form team-mate Dimitri Petratos was beginning to pick his moments.

Newcastle set up camp in Victory’s half for what felt like an age. And still they held. So deep did the visitors retreat that George clocked their only possession, for large chunks of the game, in attacking territory.

Newcastle dangerman Ronald Vargas summed up the hosts’ ability to find space but fritter it away. The shots that came were snaffled by the gloves of Thomas and half-time came as an elixir for the visitors.

The window cracked open for a hometown miracle as Petratos launched a stinging series of dangerous crosses in the last five minutes, only for the assembled Victory bodies to scramble each of them clear.

James Troisi could have sealed the game late, belting into the post from a fine angle. It didn’t matter. Victory stand as the big-match giants of the A-League.

And so the season ends sadly for Newcastle and their coach Ernie Merrick, who the city has embraced along with the other Scotsman who seems to be constantly on the local airwaves, chief executive Lawrie McKinna.

In his first season Merrick has brought a lightness of spirit that Novocastrians find endearing. More than 29,000 people attended the grand final at Hunter Stadium, a full house. The last time a crowd this size watched the Jets in Newcastle was in November 2010, in the Nathan Tinkler era, when they beat a David Beckham-led LA Galaxy.

Kevin Muscat’s men came to Newcastle on a mission. They had surgically removed a win over Sydney FC to make it, and they faced a Newcastle team that had made watching the Jets fun again. It just wasn’t enough.