City crash to third straight loss as Kisnorbo learns hard lessons

The Kenyan-born forward notched his fourth goal in his past five games when he put the Jets in front five minutes before the interval for what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

Rookie coach Kisnorbo has come through the City Football Group system, and one thing that has taught him is to stick to your plan.

He adopted a similar approach in this game save for one major change: the introduction of new signing Nuno Reis as one of his two centrebacks, replacing the suspended Kerrin Stokes, sent off in the midweek loss to Central Coast.

Reis had only been out of quarantine a week and new COVID issues with their constant border changes and restrictions had stymied his movements, but Kisnorbo had little hesitation in summoning him to the Hunter Valley and giving him a debut. Reis brought an assurance to the rearguard in the opening period as City hustled, hassled and chased, closing down the Jets and asserting themselves on their hosts.

He was instrumental in creating City’s most meaningful first-half chance after just eight minutes, stepping in smartly to win the ball and play a pass through to Adrian Luna.

The Uruguayan slid a beautiful ball through to Jamie Maclaren to put him one-on-one with Jets goalkeeper Jack Duncan. It’s a situation in which there is usually only one winner, as Maclaren’s status as a dual Golden Boot winner would suggest, but on this occasion it was Duncan who came up trumps, keeping himself big and leaving a hand loose enough to paw the ball to safety.

Earlier in his career Jason Hoffman had played for Melbourne Heart and the early iteration of City, where Kisnorbo was club captain and teammate.

On Sunday he was feted pre-game for making his 150th club appearance and he came close to marking the occasion with a memorable goal shortly after Duncan’s heroics, linking well with Yuel before smashing in a shot that City goalkeeper Tom Glover did well to block at his far post.

The Jets began to find their own rhythm after 20 minutes and thought they had hit the front just before the half-hour mark when Yuel headed in from a deflected shot. But the VAR intervened, ruling that teammate Roy O’Donovan, who was in an offside position and had interfered with Glover, preventing him from trying to save.

The Jets – and Yuel – had the goal they wanted 10 minutes later when Luka Prso, Steven Ugarkovic and Hoffman all linked well to create a header for Angus Thurgate, which came back off the post. Yuel reacted quickest and was there to poke the ball over the line.

City had their second-half chances – notably when Luna broke with Maclaren only to underhit his final pass, allowing Duncan to clear up and then when Luna had a far post header which the keeper gathered. But they couldn’t convert.