The Newcastle Jets week 11 squad for Saturday’s home game against Sydney FC.
Gary van Egmond has named a 16-man squad today, ahead of the Newcastle Jets home game against Sydney FC this weekend.
Yesterday van Egmond confirmed that Nikolai Topor-Stanley would sit the week out with a hamstring injury and would be replaced by Taylor Regan.
After a promising run in the Jets Youth team of late, van Egmond has rewarded 21-year-old Chris Payne by naming the striker in this week-s squad.
“Chris has been scoring regularly and has been doing well with the younger ones so he deserved to be called in,” the coach said.
Like the Jets, Sydney FC have struggled with consistency this season and van Egmond will be looking to his team to control the game on Saturday afternoon.
“Sydney FC are in the same boat as us in trying to find reasons why they are putting in performances of a lower standard,” van Egmond added.
“It is up to us to ensure that we look to try and have more possession than them and effective pressure because we are well aware that Sydney have some weapons that can hurt us.”
A decision has yet to be reached about who will take the spot of goalkeeper, with van Egmond saying that he would wait until the last minute to choose between Ben Kennedy and Matthew Nash.
“Nashy was a little bit sore on Wednesday after twisting his knee so we will wait and see if he is 100% before determining if he will play this week,” van Egmond said.
“BK is a lot better and has had more training under his belt so whichever way we go I am sure we will be fine as far as the goal keeping stakes are concerned.”
The Jets 16-man squad to take on Sydney FC is: 1. Ben Kennedy, 2. Taylor Regan, 5. Tiago Calvano, 6. Ben Kantarovski, 7. Kasey Wehrman, 8. Jeremy Brockie, 9. Ruben Zadkovich, 11. Tarek Elrich, 12. Jobe Wheelhouse (c), 13. Sung-Hwan Byun, 14. Labinot Haliti, 15. Chris Payne,19. Matthew Nash (gk), 22. Ali Abbas, 23. Ryan Griffiths, 24. Francis Jeffers.
