After claiming their first point since the opening round of Season 2 of the Westfield W-League, the Newcastle Jets are preparing to continue their form this weekend against 3rd placed Sydney FC.
After claiming their first point since the opening round of Season 2 of the Westfield W-League, the Newcastle Jets are preparing to continue their form this weekend against 3rd placed Sydney FC.
Despite currently sitting on the bottom end of the table, the Jets are confident in their ability to direct the positive energy that came from their 3-3 home draw with Adelaide into a clash against their F3 rivals during Round 7.
Although his side scored three goals against Adelaide, which is more than they had all season, Assistant Coach Andre Gumprecht admits that the Jets desperately need to work on their defence during set pieces.
“For some reason we are lacking a little bit in concentration and obviously it is our role as coaches to get the girls switched on when set pieces are played and we all agree and have seen that we need to become better in this regard,” Gumprecht said.
Gumprecht-s words of wisdom however have not yet been put into practice according to Captain Hayley Crawford.
“Andre touched on it last week and said we need to defend with our lives and I don-t think we-ve done that yet, so if we can take his advice I think we can turn our conceding goals around,” she said.
While the Jets skipper also believes it is vital for the squad to continue creating opportunities in front of the opposition-s goals.
“Although we didn-t get the win, it felt like a win because we were scoring goals and that-s something we weren-t doing as well as creating so many opportunities – so going into the Sydney game we are very confident we can get those opportunities again and put some away.”
“We got so much confidence out of the weekend and it is good to know that we can come from 3-1 back to a 3-3 draw and I think in the end we were the ones going for the win,” Crawford concluded.
With the Jets- confidence at a season high, the squad will be looking to provoke their drive for their first victory of the season against Sydney on Saturday with a bit of old fashioned rivalry.
“Nobody ever wants to lose to Sydney,” said Jets goalkeeper Alison Logue, continuing “It-s a big rivalry so everybody on the field will turn up on the day and we-ll be ready for it.”
The Jets face Sydney FC on Saturday 14th November at Seymour Shaw, kicking off at 4pm. Tickets can be purchased at the gate.
