Rookie goalkeeper Patrick Beach shone as a 10-man Melbourne City shaded Newcastle 1-0 in their opening-round A-League Men clash.
A second-minute goal to Marco Tilio, loaned back to City from Scottish giants Celtic, was enough to win Saturday's feisty contest at McDonald Jones Stadium, which produced eight yellow cards and a red..
City were reduced to 10 players after Socceroo James Jeggo was sent off in the 70th minute for a stamp on Eli Adams.
Just a few minutes earlier Jeggo had been caught above the ankle by Jets captain Kosta Grozos, who was perhaps fortunate to get a yellow card rather than a red.
With eight minutes of added time, Newcastle had almost half an hour to find a equaliser but couldn’t, despite dominating territory and firing in several shots.
Socceroo Aziz Behich set up the goal with a surging run down the left.
His cross was headed back across goal by Israeli import and new signing Yonatan Cohen, with Tilio slotting home from close range after his initial header was blocked.
City looked comfortable in the first half and had more possession, but the Jets' attack looked more threatening as the game developed.
A feature of City’s performance was the assured ALM debut of Beach, who was chosen ahead of highly respected 39-year-old veteran Jamie Young.
Australian under-23 representative Beach made fine first-half saves from an Aleksander Susnjar close-range shot and a curling free kick from Grozos, and was composed and accurate in his distribution.
“I’m ecstatic with the win, we had to dig deep there especially in the last 20 (minutes), the boys stuck together and we saw the game out,” Beach told Paramount+ and 10.
“I felt we played really well, especially in the first half we kept the ball and we stuck to how we want to play and it showed definitely.
“But (I'm) just proud of the boys and grateful to be able to help and do my part.”
“Jamie (Young) is a top guy and a top keeper and I respect him so much, he’s helped me so much to grow as a person and a player, and in training every day just pushing each other.”
The loss stretched Newcastle’s winless ALM streak against City to seven matches, their last victory coming three years ago.
On Saturday, both sides had 14 shots and four on target.
Tilio came close to doubling his and City’s tally in the third minute of the second half following a dazzling run and shot, which was tipped away by Jets goalkeeper Ryan Scott, who also denied a fierce late shot from Arion Sulemani.
Newcastle pushed for an equaliser in the second half, with Adams, Lachlan Bayliss and substitute Clayton Taylor all having shots.
