Newcastle Jets winger David Carney believes the Jets will gain confidence from their solid display against Italian Champions Juventus in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Wednesday night.
The Jets were defeated 1-0 by the Old Lady, but will feel hard done by not to have snared a share of the spoils, after Carney’s goal directly from the half-time restart was controversially disallowed.
“It was a good run for the boys, you always get up for those sort of games,” Carney said.
“Even though it was just behind closed doors, all the boys were buzzing and they did very well”
Carney said his spectacular goal from halfway would have stood, had it not been for the protests of the Juventus players.
“We went out after half-time and the keeper wasn’t ready, but the referee blew his whistle so with the keeper being off his line I thought ‘why not?’,” Carney explained.
“Luckily enough it went in, but then the Juventus players weren’t too happy about it so the referee asked us to take the kick-off again.”
Carney said his fitness levels were steadily increasing after being hindered by a troublesome back in recent weeks.
“It seems to be good,” Carney said.
“The coaching staff only had me pencilled in for 30 minutes against Juventus, but with Josh (Barresi) getting injured I came on a bit earlier and then was brought off in the last 10 minutes.
“I had a good hit-out and felt good backing up at training the next day, so hopefully that’s the end of the problems with my back.”
Carney said the new faces in the Jets line-up were beginning to build on-field chemistry as the start of the Hyundai A-League season approaches.
“Even against Perth we showed glimpses of positive play and we performed well as a team against Juventus,” Carney said.
“If we can get a couple of the players that we’ve signed fit, we should have a strong team coming into the first game of the season.”
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