Victory had travelled to EnergyAustralia Stadium looking for their first win of the season but were staring down the barrel of their first defeat after goals from Adam Griffiths and Stuart Musialik gave the Jets a 2-0 lead within the first 20 minutes.

It took until the middle of the second half before Victory seriously threatened the Jets when the Leandro Love-Archie Thompson partnership finally fired up and gave Victory their first goal with a Love cross finding Archie’s head to push it home.

And Victory supersub Adrian Caceres scored just moments after coming on to secure a share of the points despite Melbourne having looked to be down and out.

“Hopefully I proved what I’m worth today,” said Caceres after the final whistle. “We’d been looking for a goal all game but unfortunately it wasn’t happening for us but when I came on, finally it happened.

“We are going to push on from here and get a few more wins because draws aren’t good enough.”

Melbourne launched into the game with urgency but Newcastle broke their spirit with an early goal in the fourth minute.

Victory’s energy and vigour was at odds with Newcastle’s more measured play and the Jets gathered up one of Melbourne’s hasty loose passes, taking it upfield to win the first corner of the match.

When the cross came in, Melbourne’s defence had gone missing in action. Andrew Durrante found himself completely unmarked who flicked it towards the rear of the six yard box.

Adam Griffiths ran onto it also unmarked with time to put it away sweetly with the side of his foot.

The match turned immediately with the Jets suddenly stepping up their game as they looked for a second. Within the first ten minutes, Newcastle had six shots on goal without reply from Victory, and only ‘keeper Michael Theoklitos kept Melbourne in the game.

Archie Thompson almost squared the scores when he got on the end of an awkward chip into the box but was unable to control it well enough to make it count.

And Leandro Love squandered a fine opportunity after he was played into a scoring position but tried to place the ball instead of drilling it past Ante Covic and in the end, the weak shot was easily collected by the Jets ‘keeper.

With the initial gusto taken out of the game, Victory drew themselves back into the match and were prepared to shoot on sight with Thompson, Roddy Vargas and Grant Brebner trying their luck from nothing chances, while Joe Keenan was unfortunate not to get more from a low glancing header in the box.

And again, as Victory looked to have brought the game under control, the Jets struck once more in the 20th minute.

From just retaining possessesion in midfeld, the Jets fed the ball to Stuart Musialik near the centre circle.

He simply drifted unchallenged towards the Victory backline before unleashing a surprise long-range screamer into the bottom left hand corner that left the diving Theoklitos no chance.

It was a wonder goal that will be replayed right through to the end of the season – and ended the Jets’ run of set piece goals, finally scoring in style from open play.

Victory were left reeling by the brace of goals and made a series of unforced errors as the Jets dominated the play.

Melbourne barely got near the Newcastle penalty area and its attacking force simply became a fading memory.

Newcastle shots on goal were ever more speculative as their confidence grew with Joel Griffiths prowling the penalty area, but in truth none was really any danger to Melbourne.

But Victory won a watch when a Jets penalty call for yet another handball by Vargas was disregarded by ref Matthew Breeze.

Troy Hearfield – who got the game’s first yellow moments earlier for a late tackle - got on the end of a deep cross into the box with his head but it was blocked by Vargas, apparently with his arm.

Frustrations boiled over when a terrible tackle by Victory’s Steve Pantelidis on Joel Griffiths, scything him down from behind, sent tempers flaring. Pantelidis slapped Andrew Durrante in the ensuing fracas – but escaped with just a yellow card.

Victory picked up their game towards the end of the first half with Keenan moving down the right wing, but there was to be no way through for the Melbourne attack, with Thompson getting especially close attention from the Jets defence to deny him any opportunities.

As the second half started, Victory swapped the impressive Keenan off for Carlos Hernandez in a bid to drive the side forward more.

Once again, Melbourne came out to attack, but once again the link up they needed in the final third was sadly lacking with Thompson and Love just unable to mesh effectively, resulting in wasteful long shots from midfielders.

At the other end, Mark Bridge showed Victory what they were lacking with a scorching shot on goal from distance which required strong hands from Theoklitos to palm it over the bar to safety.

Victory were able to retain possession for large parts of the second half but never looked like threatening the Jets’ goal. Promising moves simply petered out either in bad passes, over-ambitious long-balls or just plain poor ball control.

Conversely, while the Jets saw less of the ball, they were always a threat whenever they were in control, with shots and crosses coming from every angle, played with a confidence that could result in a goal at any moment.

But the Jets’ growing confidence became their undoing. After seeing Victory fail in so many moves forward, they relaxed when yet another move looked doomed to disappoint in the 65th minute.

Broxham picked up the ball at the centre circle and fed it wide to Love on the left who beat his man well. He then delivered a lovely square ball cross that found Thompson in the box with the simplest of headers to put it away.

It was the first time the Love-Thompson combo had actually produced a meaningful chance – and Thompson made it count beautifully.

Love’s game stepped up a gear as he moved into the wide role after Victory had previously spent the game trying to bulldoze through the centre of the park.

Minutes after creating Archie’s goal, he again came in from the left and tried his own shot on goal which needed a Jets boot to push it wide of the post.

With 19 minutes left, Victory raised the stakes again, taking off Matthew Kemp for Sebastian Ryall as they pressed for an equaliser while Durrante was replaced by Paul Kohler for the Jets.

Newcastle had the chance to put the game beyond doubt when Piorkowski made an error in defence and Troy Hearfield robbed him on the edge of the box.

He had the chance to shoot himself but fed it to Joel Griffiths on his left instead and Theoklitos got down well to save it.

Hearfield went off in pain moments later after a challenge from Muscat and was replaced for the last ten minutes by Super Mario Jardel, to the delight of the 11,179-strong home crowd.

For Melbourne though, it was Adrian Caceres who came off the bench to make an immediate impact, clinching the vital equaliser with a marvellous solo effort seven minutes from time.

He drifted in from the left wing and ran at his man, getting past him with a lovely step over and found himself with only the keeper to beat...and slotted the ball just inside the left hand post to level the scores spectacularly.

Jardel almost reclaimed the lead moments later when a long ball dropped into the box, straight onto Super Mario’s head but Theoklitos just managed to tip it wide with a long dive to his left.

In the end though neither side could break the deadlock and Victory retained their unbeaten record, despite having been outclassed by the Jets for most of the match.

FourFourTwo Says:
How the HELL did that happen? The Jets were in cruise control, went to sleep for a second and suddenly Victory finally find the kind of form they showed last season. The first goal was a warning for the future, providing it wasn't just a freak accident that Love and Archie linked up well for the first time. And Caceres running down the Newcastle Jets defence and then drilling it home was a delight.

But the Jets will reckon they were robbed - and with good reason. They looked good from start to finish and Musialik's goal was sensational. There'll be a lot of soul searching tonight as they work out how they didn't come away with three points.