Mark Birighitti believes the Jets’ victory over Brisbane Roar has given the squad a massive boost heading into the New Year.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets goalkeeper Mark Birighitti believes the Jets- victory over ladder leaders Brisbane Roar last Friday has given the squad a massive boost heading into the New Year.
The Jets- 2-0 victory over the two-time champions was their second over the Roar in a month and moved the team to equal third position on the Hyundai A-League ladder.
“It was a fantastic result to go to Brisbane, we-ve got up a good record up there, to get there and get three points on their home patch was definitely a good effort by the boys,” Birighitti said.
“It brings a good atmosphere in the group, the boys are buzzing, you can see out there the boys are in a good mood and a good mindset.”
Birighitti admitted it was especially satisfying to upset Brisbane away from home given that no one had given the Jets a chance of getting a result.
“Massively, especially when everyone underestimates us as well, to go over there, we were happy with a point but to get three points was definitely a real bonus,” he said.
“Hopefully we can back it up this weekend against Adelaide, we-ve got a good record there as well and I don-t see why we can-t go there and get three points as well.”
Birighitti was pleased to keep a clean sheet against arguably the best attacking team in the competition and paid tribute to the team-s defensive discipline for the entire match.
“It was very important. You go into every game trying to keep a clean sheet, not only on my behalf but the defence-s and midfield-s behalf as well,” he said.
“Everyone just had a solid effort all round, so the boys should be proud of themselves, it-s a new week and we-re looking forward to the Adelaide game.
“We-ve just got to keep going, it-s an important time in the season, we need to knuckle down, work hard and keep going with these good results.”
Adelaide prefer a possession based game similar to Brisbane Roar but Birighitti believes a shift in their philosophy in recent weeks will pose the Jets with a different challenge.
“They-ve had two good results, kept two clean sheets in the last two weeks, so it-s going to be tough,” he said.
“They-ve kind of resorted to a long ball game, the start of the season they liked to try and play out from the back, watching the last couple weeks they-ve definitely started to play a few long balls.
“We-ve worked on it at training, we-re going to have to adapt to it like we do with any other game but I-m confident in the boys that we can go over there and do the job.”
