Taylor Regan believes the Jets were unlucky not take anything from their clash with the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets defender Taylor Regan believes the Jets were unlucky not take anything from their clash with the Western Sydney Wanderers at Hunter Stadium on Saturday night.
The Jets created a number of opportunities against last season-s Premiers but were unable to find the back of the net as former Jet Mark Bridge scored the only goal of the game for the visitors.
“We have to look at the positives, we were certainly in the match and I think a draw would have been a fair result,” Regan said.
“Since the match I-ve spoken to a couple of their players and they were of the same opinion, they thought it was a very hard match, it was just going to be little things that defined the outcome.
“I think the first half was all ours up until that goal, it came a little bit against the run of play, we had a few chances, it-s one of those things that if you take those chances maybe it-s a different game.”
The Jets took some time out on Monday morning to take part in a surf school at Nobbys Beach and Regan was quick to point out who was the worst surfer in the team.
“Michael Bridges, lucky he can play football because he can-t do anything else, he can-t dress, can-t surf, he can own a nice restaurant that-s about it,” he said.
“I-ve never seen so much sun screen in one car park in my whole life, some of the boys were deadest bathing in it before we out there and we were out there at 8.30am.
“The boys had fun and that-s the main thing. We had a very busy schedule and it-s good to have a little bit of a release.
“This week is about recharging the batteries coming into big games like this, we know we-re going to have to do a lot of running.”
Regan admitted facing Brisbane Roar away from home would be a huge challenge but insisted the Jets were desperate to test themselves against the best.
“We do well against the better sides, we showed against the Melbourne Victory that if we go down with a game plan we can certainly show what we-re made of,” Regan said.
“That will be the order of attack this weekend. Brisbane are the benchmark at the moment but I think we have the squad that can do it.”
Brisbane play a possession-based style similar to Melbourne Victory whom the Jets beat two weeks ago and Regan is confident they can produce a similar result this weekend.
“Yeah Brisbane are very similar to Victory, we go there knowing they will have a lot possession, knowing they have weapons all over the pitch,” Regan explained.
“It-s about being disciplined to the game plan. Gary had a game plan against Victory and it worked, no doubt he-s done his homework and we-ll be ready for Brisbane.
Regan recognises the threat Albanian striker Besart Berisha poses to the Jets this weekend and felt it would take a full effort from the team so shut down the lethal Roar striker.
“Berisha is one of those guys you like to play against. You don-t really want to get under his skin too early because he reacts to that and that seems to make him play better,” he said.
“We-ll have a job on our hands no doubt about that, but I think if we nullify the service coming into him than that goes a long way to stopping his goals.”
