Brisbane Roar showed why they are the current A-League champions with a 2-1 win over Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium on Saturday night.

The final home game of the season is old boys day and another good crowd of 11,241 was in attendance to see some former Hunter Footballers who have represented the local teams over the years and of course to see the Jets in action.

The ground was in good condition considering there had been two games of Rugby League and some wet weather in the past 24 hours. If there was any inconsistency with the surface, it did not seem to worry the Brisbane Roar players. The Roar went ahead after 13 minutes thanks to a strike from A-League leading goal scorer Besart Berisha. Brisbane had a chance to double their lead shortly after when Henrique’s strike managed to hit both posts before rolling into the arms of Jets keeper Ben Kennedy. The Jets defence was caught off guard again just a minute later when Bersiha also hit the right post. The match was going from one end to the other with both teams making breaks and half chances. It would take Newcastle until the 40th minute to get on the score sheet with a goal from Ali Abbas from a free kick.

The second half began with Brisbane looking the much more dominant side despite the 1 all score. Brisbane just looked quicker, angrier and more confident with the ball at their feet. Their only lapse was a poor penalty attempt from Henrique. It seemed that the luck of the Irish was on Newcastle’s side with Brisbane’s continued missed opportunities. But eventually the Jets luck would run out with another penalty awarded in the 80th minute. This time Brisbane’s Mitch Nichols converted the penalty and the Roar would hang on for a valuable 3 points away from home. For Newcastle their fate is in their own hands. The will travel to Sydney next Sunday to take on the sky blues for a place in the top 6.

It has been an up and down season for the Jets in 2011-12. At Hunter Stadium the Newcastle Jets managed 7 wins 2 draws and 4 loses with an average crowd of 12,109. Not a bad effort considering the mixture of weather conditions and bad time slots the Jets had. Hopefully the scheduling will be a bit kinder to Newcastle next season. The Football Association needs to takes into account that a lot of Jets fans play cricket and work on Saturdays and that they can’t make it to the games for 5:30 kick offs. Novocastrians love their sport and if we are given a fare go with scheduling I’m sure memberships will be even higher in the 2012-13 season.

I wish the Jets all the best next week against Sydney FC and hopefully they can progress into the final series. See you at Hunter Stadium next season.