Fresh off a strong win against Wellington, the Jets are not resting on their laurels – not in the slightest.
Instead, the team have “pretty much forgotten about last week” as they prepare for a massive clash against ladder-leaders, Macarthur FC away from home.
In a week that’s been stifled with COVID distractions, captain Matt Jurman is adamant the team’s belief and focus hasn’t wavered at all, and that the team is up for the challenge this Sunday as they look to continue their momentum past a strong Macarthur side.
“Obviously Macarthur’s started well to the season, and it’ll be a good test for us and we’re looking forward to it,” Jurman said.
“We want to go there and play our football. If we can play as good as we can play, the result will take care of itself.
“The confidence is there. But we’re just focused on the game on Sunday.”
Last weekend may have marked the first win of the season for the new-look Jets, but it was a long-time coming according to the skipper based on the type of football that had been showcased in the first three rounds.
The undefeated Macarthur currently sit five points ahead of our Jets, making this game a great opportunity to reduce the gap to the top of the table.
“I think it’ll be a good game,” Jurman said.
“I think we’d been playing well, we just hadn’t gotten the results we wanted. But on the weekend, it was a lot of hard work and I thought we were pretty good.
“You can’t really look into results this early into the season.
“From an inside point of view, we know what we’re doing is good stuff and we’re working hard. We know we’re on the right path. As a team, we just need to get the results. I think everyone can see that our football has been there from the first game.”
Jurman also managed to pick up his first clean sheet with the Club alongside his fellow defenders, following a strong focus on a more resolute and ruthless backline approach.
While the former A-League Champion was pleased to collect the clean sheet, he made it clear that it was a team effort.
“We defend as a team,” he said.
“There’s no one that should score all the goals themselves, and there’s no one that defend by themselves. We do everything together.
“It was good to have a clean sheet as a team. Going forward, we want more of that.”
When the two sides faced off in a pre-season trial, there were goals galore, but since then both sides have improved drastically.
Macarthur currently sits as the best defensive team in the competition having only conceded one goal which came from the penalty spot, while the Jets sit far ahead any other team in the goal scoring department.
The Newcastle captain expects a totally different game to the one that was played in pre-season, and while some teams may become aware of the type of football the Jets are looking to produce, the team is still only focusing on their football, as they have done all pre-season.
“I think both teams have evolved a lot since that trial match,” he said.
“It’s a new team. We’re gelling as the season goes on.
“There’s already been teams who have tried to slow the game down and waste time, but we’re just focused on what we need to do. It’s about getting better at what we do.
“We want to make sure we’re getting results like that every week.”
