Gary van Egmond says the Jets have gained a lot of self-belief from their 2-0 win over table-topping Brisbane Roar on Friday.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets head coach Gary van Egmond believes the Jets 2-0 win over the table-topping Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night has given his side plenty of self belief heading into the Christmas break.
Despite only holding 34 per cent of possession during the contest, the Jets maintained a solid defensive structure, repelling each of the Roar-s forays forward, before striking on the counter-attack.
“It-s good to pick up any points against Brisbane at this moment, because they-re obviously the league leaders,” van Egmond said.
“To beat them on their home patch is extremely good. It-s a real confidence booster and there-s a lot of belief now in the camp, if there wasn-t already before.”
Van Egmond made a tactical adjustment midway through the first half that enabled the Jets to curtail Brisbane’s early momentum and wrestle control of the game from the hosts.
“We talked about trying to control the game without the ball,” van Egmond said..
“We started off with a 4-4-2, tried to play a diamond initially, and they just kept on getting out to the opposite side, and I just thought it was a matter of time until we were going to get ourselves in trouble there.
“So we switched back to a 4-3-3 and it made it a little bit easier for us to be a bit more compact and have numbers in the middle, with each wide player tucking into the two central midfielders.
“It wasn’t an easy game to try and play through the middle, with so many bodies in there and, of course, the way that the pitch was probably helped us as well, so we sort of tried to play to conditions as much as possible.
“But it was a fantastic effort by the players defensively and opportunist in regards to scoring a couple as well.”
Van Egmond once again reserved plenty of praise for his troop of talented younsgters, in particular midfielder Josh Brillante, who set up Joey Gibbs for the game-clinching goal in the 87th minute.
“He was excellent,” van Egmond said.
“He’s been doing very well this season, we’ve been very happy with him and very happy with his development.
“He’s probably playing a little bit higher than what I would envisage his favourite position to be, you know I see him more as a six or an eight.
“As with all six and eights, they do relish the opportunity of playing a bit further forward, and that is a good part of his development as well.
“But you have those ones who are 19, 20, 21 and have been very good youth players, and now they’ve got to make that transition into senior football.
“And this year he’s a real man, and a few of those other younger ones coming through are of the same mould, and it just augers very well for the future of this Club.”
