90+3 min: Into the mixer stuff now from City and from one long punt the second ball drops to Arzani who curls in a vicious cross that arrows towards Fitzgerald but it bounces and spits off the turf making a header all but impossible to control and Newcastle survive.

90+2 min: City don’t really even look likely as things stand. They break down the right but the cross floats harmlessly wide.

90 min: Hoffman accepts defeat in his time-wasting appeals, allowing Nick Cowburn to replace him as substitute.

Four minutes of added time have been announced. Feels unders.

88 min: The Jets are finishing strongly, they’re not retreating into their shells to see this one out.

Ooof! Luke Brattan could well be off. Second bookable offence in a space of minutes but Evans keeps his card in his pocket again! Hoffman is the injured party and he is milking the clock for all it’s worth on the turf.

85 min: Petratos lets fly from miles out with a set-piece and it swerves late on Bouzanis who can only parry it back into play. It works out ok for City though with the free-kick taker becoming the latest in the book for following through on the already fouled Budzinski.

83 min: Almost a chance for Budzinski but the ball gets trapped under his foot as he’s about to pull the trigger. Brattan commits a cynical foul in midfield, receives a deserved yellow card and almost sparks an all-in brawl. Hoffman and Schenkeveld are also cautioned for their involvement in the melee. Plenty of feeling left in this one.

80 min: City have lacked fluency this half, all game really, with Brattan unable to get his foot on the ball as much as he usually would. Arzani has been the only creative outlet but his jinks and dribbles have been isolated.

Double change from Joyce with Budzinski and Fitzgerald replacing Mauk and Bozanic. All out attack from City now.

78 min: City can’t do anything for a while because Newcastle have them pinned in their own half with a succession of slowly-taken corners.

76 min: What can City do in the last 15 minutes?

73 min: Almost a one-on-one for City with Mauk feeding Vidosic but the latter was fractionally offside. The move was started by Arzani with an intelligent cross-field pass.

72 min: Just a sidenote - Dean Bouzanis’ distribution tonight has been spectacularly awful.

70 min: A rare shot on target for City. More dazzling footwork down the left from Arzani, his cross eventually finds Brattan but his low drive is straight at Moss.

69 min: Half-chance for Newcastle following a lovely flowing move started by Champness, involving McGree and ending on the right corner of the box with a Hoffman shot just over the bar.

68 min: The game’s on the verge of busting open with both sides looking for early balls forward, Newcastle into the breeze for O’Donovan to compete for, City using the breeze to exploit Arzani’s pace and Fornaroli’s movement.

66 min: The Jets make their second sub with Champness replacing Vargas.

64 min: Better from City, resetting the tempo and using Arzani as an outlet. His mazy run ends with a Fornaroli shot blocked. The crowd is still humming after that (fluke?) goal from McGree.

61 min: Now Arzani is walking a tightrope, already on a booking he lunges in late and clips a Jet but Evans keeps his red card in his pocket. The crowd is right back into this

60 min: Ernie Merrick didn’t move a muscle. That goal will be viral by full-time.

55 min: From the free-kick another achingly good Petratos delivery sails inches away from the diving Topor-Stanley with Bouzanis committed. Petratos doing his World Cup chances no harm tonight, even just as a dead-ball specialist.

54 min: There’s niggly fouls all over the place and you suspect this could flare up if Shaun Evans isn’t careful. He lets Brattan off with a warning when a yellow card seemed obvious but then pulls out a ticket for Arzani for a far more borderline indiscretion. This has not been a virtuoso performance from the referee.

51 min: What was I saying? A ball into the channel for O’Donovan to run onto leads into a half-chance snapshot from the edge of the box. Perhaps the first time tonight Osama Malik has been caught out of position.

50 min: Still little to report this half. Newcastle need a plan B to work their way through a deep City defence and this wind in their faces. As fun as it is to watch, the blitzkrieg is unlikely to prosper.

48 min: Scrappy start to the second half with Newcastle’s direct balls forward holding up in the wind and City unable to pick a pass in the opposite direction.

46 min: I’ve not really mentioned the stiff breeze tonight which is now blowing in favour of Melbourne City. The Jets used it to their advantage in the first half and it caused Bouzanis all sorts of issues with his clearances. It will be interesting to see how both sides adjust.

The players are back out for the second half. No changes from either side.

45+3 min: Wow! Petratos lines up a free-kick from 35 metres on the angle and it catches the breeze and rattles the crossbar. What a hit. And that’s the last kick of the ball in the first half as the heavens open.

45+2 min: More eye-catching defending from Malik to snap shut another Jets attack but Bouzanis is having a ‘mare with his kicking tonight and slices possession back to the hosts.

45 min: For the first time in an age a quick Jets counter put City on their heels but the ball was with the wrong man. Space opened up for Johnny Koutroumbis cutting in from the elft but his shot is wild and nearer the corner flag than the goal.

44 min: Naughty again from Vargas! He is a lucky lucky boy. Brattan robbed him in the tackle causing the playmaker to leap with both feet off the ground in a scissor motion into Stefan Mauk. That was ugly, and it earns a long overdue booking.

42 min: Malik has been outstanding tonight, reading everything Newcastle have thrown towards City’s defence so far tonight. Towering headers, blocks, interceptions and desperate lunges, he’s had it all. His teammate Stefan Mauk becomes the first City player in the book for a raised forearm into the throat of Riley McGree.

40 min: From the resulting corner Boogaard plants yet another free header straight at Bouzanis. It wouldn’t have counted had it gone in though after Malik was fouled in the build-up by Topor-Stanley.

38 min: It’s City’s turn to lack fluency now and their inability to retain possession is inviting the Jets onto them. Once again Petratos manages to whip a superb ball in to the danger area - from open play this time - that City do just enough to clear.

36 min: Another magnificent set-piece from Petratos causes havoc in the City box but Ugarkovic’s contested header glances over the bar. On another night Newcastle could already have bagged three or four from such scenarios.

34 min: The match continues to be disrupted by fouls and dead balls, all the while robbing the Jets of any momentum as they look to force their way back into this contest.

32 min: Super play down the right by Hoffman takes him beyond Jamieson but not for the first time tonight Malik is in the right place at the right time to effect the clearance.

30 min: Better from the Jets after a long spell without any penetration but the combination of McGree and Petratos can’t fashion a shooting opportunity around the edge of the box.

27 min: Duncan’s night is over. On comes the veteran Moss. Newcastle’s night is not going according to script.

25 min: The frenetic pace of the early stages has slowed, helped by the VAR stoppage. It suits City who are happy to disrupt any Newcastle momentum and keep the home crowd quiet. There’s another stoppage, this time for Jack Duncan, who has done something to his right quad clearing a long ball upfield. Glenn Moss is warming up.

22 min: More twinkle toes from Arzani and he dances his way into the box before he’s kicked on his shins by Koutroumbis. It looks a penalty in real time, one exaggerated by Arzani’s fall to the turf. Evans doesn’t give it, play stops for VAR to take a look, and after a couple of minutes the call is play on. Deary me, VAR is a shambles. It’s hard to understand why the pen wasn’t given live, less still when the replay clearly shows a blue boot kicking a red shin.

21 min: Big test for Newcastle now. City have no need to expose themselves and allow the Jets the space they require on the counterattack. Do they have the patience to pick their way through a well-drilled defensive unit?

18 min: The first proper look at Arzani for the night is an exciting one but his slaloming run is brought to an end midway in Jets territory. It’s a naughty deliberate foul that earns Ugarkovic a booking.

16 min: Riley McGree fizzes a powerful strike inches over the bar from the edge of the box as the Jets try to hit straight back.

12 min: City have an issue with the speed of Newcastle’s transitions. As soon as a visiting attack breaks down the Jets are bursting forward in numbers and at pace. Bozanic and Mauk in particular are going to be tasked with a few tactical fouls to keep the game near halfway or risk exposing their back four to one-on-ones.

10 min: The game is now being played at two speeds, measured and deliberate when City have the ball, fast and furious when the Jets take over. Both approaches are working in their own way but there’s something exhilarating about watching the blue shirts stream forward on the counter, especially when Petratos is on the ball. Once again his delivery fails by inches to fashion a goalscoring opportunity.

8 min: What a miss! Hoffman plants a free header over the bar from five yards out right in front of City’s goal. That was a shocking way to treat Petratos’ sublime free-kick. How costly will that miss prove?

6 min: The Jets have their first sight of goal courtesy of a dangerous Petratos free-kick that bobbles into the box and skips past three blue shirts before skirting beyond Bouzanis’ far post. Shortly afterwards Vargas is again in the thick of the action, milking a free-kick off Jamieson and then sparking some argy-bargy. This is tasty early on.

5 min: Oooh Ronny Vargas is lucky to escape without sanction for a stray elbow into the face of Arzani in a heading contest. Yellows and worse have been given for similar.

4 min: City look the more composed in possession but that’s partly because Newcastle are defending in a mid-block, allowing Malik and Schenkeveld time on the ball in their own half. They’ve had joy breaking free through Bozanic down the left on a couple of occasions but crosses have yet to find a target.

2 min: A predictably frenetic start to the contest, unsurprising given the circumstances, even more so considering Stefan Mauk is in the thick of things early. City have settled the better, fashioning the first cross of the game, but there’s no pattern to report just yet.

Shaun Evans is the man in the middle. He’s in charge of his first A-League final. Kick-off just seconds away.

The teams are making their way out onto the turf, Jets top to toe in royal blue, City in their change strip of Melbourne Heart-era red and white stripes, red shorts and socks.

Unfortunately the weather is not playing along with the occasion. It’s wet and chilly in the Hunter but it’ll take more than that to dampen the spirits inside McDonald Jones Stadium.

Merrick’s counterpart at City, Warren Joyce, celebrated what he’s accomplished during his A-League debut but made it clear he was far from satisfied.

“We’ve equalled the most wins, reached our highest place in the league, conceded the fewest goals, most clean sheets. There’s a lot of first achieved already this year.

I want to win every single game. I won’t be satisfied until we win every single game. That’s the aim, that’s the demand on yourself. The pain of losing a game is far greater to me than the joy of winning games.”

Newcastle Jets coach Ernie Merrick spoke this week about the importance of his side continuing its positive approach during the finals series.

Any finals team that I have coached that have that sort of attitude in the preparation — taking the game to the opposition team — they are the sort of teams that will achieve something. There’s the positive feeling you get from a team that has a mindset that they are going to stay focused and they are going to get a job done and they are going to work really hard for the whole 95 minutes.

At the Jets, we have tried to develop a team that has scored a lot of goals, so if you have a team that has scored 57 goals in a season then you know that given the opportunity we will score goals. Defence is very, very important but you don’t win a game on defence, that is just your launching pad.”

I wonder who the neutrals are getting behind tonight?

Some stats, courtesy of Opta, that bode well for the visitors.

• Melbourne City are undefeated in their last four games against Newcastle Jets (W3, D1), and have won seven of their last 11 meetings overall (D1, L3).
  
• In fact, Melbourne City have won on four of their last five trips to McDonald Jones Stadium, outscoring the Jets 15-5 in that time.
  
• Melbourne City have won four of their last five games (L1), keeping a clean sheet in each of those victories.
  
• Newcastle have made six shots on target per game this season, more than any other club in the competition.
  
• Melbourne City have an 80% passing accuracy this campaign, the best of any team in the competition.
  

Hi all - Jonathan Howcroft will be in shortly to take you through tonight’s clash - in the interim, here’s Ben Smee’s lovely feature on what a long-overdue return to finals action means for the people of a once-proud footballing region: