Asian Football Saturday Round-Up

Australian A-League

The Newcastle Jets came from behind to defeat Melbourne Victory 3-1 to move above their opponents into third position in the A-League.

After a sensational goal from Carlos Hernandez opened the scoring for Victory, the Jets responded quickly to take a 2-1 lead just after half-time, and went to consolidate on that lead with another impressive display at home.

Jeremy Brockie put in another stand-out performance up front for the Jets while Ryan Griffiths bagged two goals, his second coming with two minutes remaining to secure the win.

Despite the Jets' dominance early on it was Victory who took the lead on 20 minutes with a delightful goal from Hernandez breaking the deadlock; there was little that Matthew Nash could do as Hernandez curled his effort into the top corner from 20 yards.

However it did not take the home side long to respond as they were awarded a penalty on 26 minutes after Marco Rojas dragged down Griffiths in the box.

Griffiths stepped up to send Ante Covic the wrong way and place his finish into the bottom corner to level the scores at 1-1.

Newcastle continued to press forward and threaten Melbourne's goal but were unable to make the breakthrough they needed going into the half-time break and the scores remained level.

It took them just one minute after the restart though to take the lead after Labinot Haliti headed home a Brockie cross at the back post.

Victory almost had a penalty of their own on 78 minutes when Nikolai Topor-Stanley brought down Archie Thompson who was through on goal, but referee Jarred Gillett overlooked the challenge.

Any attempt of a comeback was washed away 10 minutes later when Griffiths got his second goal of the match, finishing into an empty net after Ruben Zadkovich's initial shot was blocked by Covic right into his path.

Mile Sterjovski celebrated his daughter's birth by scoring in Perth Glory's 2-0 victory over 10-man Gold Coast United.

On a hot and almost breathless night at Perth's nib Stadium, the Glory proved too good for an indisciplined Gold Coast, who gave away two silly penalties either side of half-time.

The first of these was a terrible handball by Zachary Anderson that Sterjovski converted with aplomb as he celebrated the birth of his third child, Lilly, on Friday morning.

Shane Smeltz made no mistake from the spot after Ben Halloran's poor challenge on Andrezinho in the 53rd minute, condemning United to their fifth consecutive defeat as Perth climbed into fourth.

UAE League

UAE League leaders Al-Jazeera maintained their flying start to the season with a 4-1 demolition of bottom side Al-Emirates.

Emirates took a shock lead on five minutes through Akarandut Orok, but unbeaten Al-Jazeera hit back immediately, levelling through Ricardo Oliveira on eight minutes before Jader Bare made it 2-1 60 seconds later.

Abdullah Qassem extended the lead on 25 minutes before Oliveira's second wrapped things up in stoppage time.

After starting the season with five wins and a draw from six games, Al-Jazeera now lead by five points after second-placed Al-Wasl could only draw 2-2 at home to Al-Shabab, who are fourth in the standings.

Walid Abbas fired Al-Wasl ahead on 19 minutes before Al-Shabab hit back through Darweesh Ahmed (40) and Jociel Ciel (47). Richard Porta struck the equaliser for Diego Maradona's side on 82 minutes.

In Saturday's other game, Ajman were 3-1 winners at Dubai SC.

Hassan Ebrahim opened the scoring after two minutes for Ajman but Hassan Abdullah levelled for the hosts 20 minutes later.

Ajman secured the points thanks to second-half strikes by Ebrahim Toure (62) and Hassan Matouq (70).