Gary van Egmond was pleased with the way the team responded in the second half after a bad start at AAMI Park.
Coach Gary van Egmond was pleased with the Jets’ resilience to recover from a horror start and draw 3-all with Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
“We are happy with the character shown to get back into the game after those two early goals,” van Egmond said.
The Jets conceded their first goal with less than a minute on the clock, and were trailing 2-0 after five minutes, both due to their own defensive errors.
The away team levelled the score in the 64th minute but were again chasing the Heart when Richard Garcia scored his second goal of the match in the 71st minute.
A penalty for a foul on James Virigili allowed Ryan Griffiths to push a third goal past goalkeeper Clint Bolton to level the scores 3-all with three minutes of regular time left in the game.
“If you have the answer to how we turned it around in the second half, I would love to know,” the coach said with a laugh.
“There wasn-t much I said at half time but you change things up.
“They were disappointed with their first half performance and it is great we got the response we got in the second half.
“Melbourne went in to their shell and tried to protect the lead which worked for us.”
Midfielder Ruben Zadkovich, who got the Jets second goal of the game, also spoke of the character of the team.
‘‘We started the game the way we started last week and to concede two was very disappointing,– he said after the match.
‘‘But to be able to comeback twice; we-ve done that a few times, which shows we-ve got that Newcastle spirit and that-s what the fans want.–
The Jets have played three of their last four games away from home and despite the mixed results are in third position.
They-re on the road again next week, traveling north to play the reigning champions Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday and the coach is looking for a better defensive effort.
“Performance wise, this game pretty well sums us up as far as our season’s concerned, we’re pretty inconsistent,” van Egmond said.
“The one thing for sure is that there’s no way we’ll be serious title challengers while we concede the number of goals we’ve conceded.
“That’s something we have to rectify because if you come away against a team like Melbourne Heart and score three goals and still don’t win, its never going to be sustainable.”
