Melbourne Victory

Lawrence Thomas - 7

Left scrambling a few times in the first half, but ultimately nothing wrong, nothing doing. Sprung to life in the second as Newcastle probed on the counter, pulling of a couple of sensational saves.

Storm Roux - 7

Composed and purposeful when taking the ball centrally – looked very confident in possession.

Corey Brown - 5

Victory’s weakest link in the first half, allowing the likes of Jair to breeze past him, giving away the ball in dangerous positions.

James Donachie - 5

Relatively solid in the air but lackadaisical in his man-marking, could expect a greater influence in defensive marshalling. Sent off in stupid fashion late for a challenge on Kaine Sheppard.

Thomas Deng - 6

Greater impact than Donachie, but still left a little to be desired. Appeared to play Roy O’Donovan back into form at times.

Raúl Baena - 7

A little over-physical as per usual but overall a decent performance, pinging the ball around with as much penetration as Victory's deep-dropping strikers would allow.

Keisuke Honda - 7

Very creative and demonstrative first half. You get the feeling his standard of footballer could have left the Jets there for the taking, but while he didn’t create anything truly goalworthy, worthy of a strong rating nonetheless.

James Troisi - 7

At times he was more influential than Honda, certainly took over the mid-creator role with aplomb when the Japanese superstar drifted wide as usual. While he faded a little, was a surprising withdrawal.

Terry Antonis - 6

A few excellent switches and reverse through-balls, but not quite as influential as he could have been (nit-picking? Yeah)

Kenny Athiu - 6

Fantastic volley ruled out for offside. You get the feeling he could be a great striker if he has the opportunity to gain confidence and improve year-on-year. The Big V may not be quite the place to do that, however…

Kosta Barbarouses - 6

Drew a lot of praise in the first 45, but he flattered to deceive at times. Heavily involved, but not a vintage display.

Subs

Jai Ingham - 5

Had one particularly exciting chance directly in front, needed to offer the composure to nick it past the keeper but could only take one too many touches.

Anthony Lesiotis - 7

Superbly matched the tempo of the match for a late sub and looked nowhere near out of his depth at this level.

Leigh Broxham - 6

Strange substitution, offered relatively little.

Newcastle Jets

Glen Moss - 8

A few choice saves after earning a new contract this week. 36-years-old has never looked so spritely.

Nikolai Topor-Stanley - 9

Very solid under a lot of pressure, one of his finest displays this season.

Nigel Boogaard - 7

Spun by Honda a few times but who hasn’t been, and while he wasn't as effective as Topor, no one really was.

Lachlan Jackson - 8

A very strong performance all-in-all, if he can play in one of the finest defensive displays this season as comfortably as he did, he deserves an extended run in the squad.

Johnny Koutroumbis - 8

Great finish for the goal but where was Corey Brown? Or any other Victory defender for that matter? Absolute gift.

Daniel Georgievski - 8

Very influential, superb attacking and consistent crossing to boot. One of the most consistently threatening fullbacks in the league.

Steven Ugarkovic - 7

He showed glimpses of the Cesc Fabregas-esque deep-plying playmaker he was last season. He’s got this natural physicality and can play a centimetre perfect switching ball, but he lacks the explosiveness of a Kearyn Baccus. Therefore, just glimpses.

Benjamin Kantarovski - 8

Brilliant, unselfish display in midfield. Pressed intelligently, defended brilliantly.

Roy O'Donovan - 6

He does a lot of frustratingly unrewarded running. His so-called dip in form can only be blamed on the Irish striker so much, at the end of the day who’s supplying him?

Dimitri Petratos - 8

Another anonymous display for 94 or so minutes, one or two mandatory pops at goal the obvious exception. But oh my did he make it up in style with a phenomenal, goal-of-the-season worthy strike to wrap it up. Just pure class.

Jair - 8

He’s growing, bit by bit. You get the feeling that if Newcastle are going to make finals - and they're only two points off - Jair will play a key part in the Novocastrian's final surge.

Subs

Matthew Ridenton - 7

Played a largely defensive role to a key, a perfect substitution.

Joseph Champness - 6

Pressed intelligently from the front, a little ineffective off the break.

Kaine Sheppard - 6

His most substantial contribution was enticing James Donachie into a match-ending second yellow card.