Mark Birighitti says he was pleased to hold the Brisbane Roar scoreless in the Jets’ 1-0 trial match win on Saturday night.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets goalkeeper Mark Birighitti says he was pleased to hold the Brisbane Roar scoreless in the Jets- 1-0 trial match win at Scully Park in Tamworth on Saturday night.
Birighitti said keeping a clean sheet against a potent Brisbane attack that featured the likes of last season-s Golden Boot winner Besart Berisha was a positive sign for the Jets defence.
“Every keeper wants to keep a clean sheet and to do that against Brisbane who have a good quality strike force was quite pleasing,” he said.
“Defensively I thought we were pretty sound and I thought all over the pitch we put up a pretty good fight.”
Birighitti played a key role in ensuring the Jets were victorious, pulling off two first-class saves in the second half to preserve Newcastle-s lead.
He firstly denied Matt Jurman-s header with a scrambling reflex save at his far post following a Roar corner, before later making a diving one-handed save to tip Berisha-s shot from the edge of the area over the crossbar.
“They-re the saves that are going to win games and I was fortunate enough that they came off,” Birighitti said.
“Sometimes you pull those saves off and sometimes you don-t but against Brisbane I was lucky enough that they went my way.”
While not getting carried away with the result, Birighitti said the quality of football on display from the Jets throughout the match showed plenty of promise.
“It was a good performance by the boys,” he said.
“To play good quality opposition like Brisbane, the reigning Champions for two years in a row, and get a result like we did was really positive.
“I also thought we played really well and that will give us great confidence and motivation coming up to round one.”
The Jets- next pre-season friendly game is against Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday. Kick-off is at 2pm.
