Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets midfielder Ben Kantarovski believes the team will take a valuable lesson from their draw with arch rivals Central Coast Mariners on the weekend.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets midfielder Ben Kantarovski believes the team will take a valuable lesson from their draw with arch rivals Central Coast Mariners on the weekend.
The Jets held a two-nil lead with 25 minutes remaining, but two late goals from the Mariners denied the home side their first victory of the season.
“It was very disappointing especially in a derby against Central Coast, it was quite an indifferent feeling being up two-nil and conceding to a draw,” Kantarovski said on Monday morning.
“We kind of took it as a loss, that much of a hurt inside.”
Kantarovski said coach Gary Van Egmond was pleased with the team-s performance but was left frustrated with their inability to close out the match.
“He was quite happy with our performance it was just that lack of discipline,” he added.
“I think that-s the difference with us at the moment, just having that discipline going up two-nil and being able to hold that lead and see out the game.”
Although disappointed with the result on the weekend, Kantarovski believes the Jets are heading in the right direction with their performances.
Three consecutive draws and two clean sheets have the Jets sitting in seventh position on the ladder and just one point outside the top six.
“We were a bit disappointed not to score in last week-s performance against Wellington, but we showed a lot of promising signs,” Kantarovski said.
“That was a benefit for us coming into this game and the football we played on Saturday night was quite remarkable as well, we played some good stuff.
“We didn-t give too much away to Central Coast, even though they had two chances they were probably the only chances they had.
“They didn-t really look to threaten us much more, so that was quite a good sign.”
Kantarovski admitted the Jets were slow to get their season started but a string of positive results has provided a launching pad for their season.
“At the start we were a little hesitant, certainly we have played it out of game and now we are looking to get some good performances under our belt,” he said.
“The performance was a better highlight because the football we played was better than the week before and we-re slowly improving on each week-s performance.
“We take that forward, we-ve scored a goal now and now we-re looking to get that win.”
Kantarovski is confident he is slowly getting back to his best after a turbulent 18 months riddled with persistent injury problems.
After missing the opening two rounds, Kantarovski has been a standout in the Jets midfield in the past two games against Wellington and Central Coast.
“It was good to have that long pre-season with no pressure or anything just to be able to get the body ready and fit for this season,” he said.
“One of my personal goals at the start of the season was to get back into the team and play a full game.
“Now we-ve achieved that, we-ll try and step it up and play week in week out, now two games under the belt and hopefully we can look to a third this week.”
