Newcastle Jets will play their first game of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season on Saturday at Hunter Stadium, six months to the day since their last home game of last season in Round 26 against Sydney FC.
The Jets went down 4-3 in a high scoring fixture in April but head coach Scott Miller said this season’s squad wanted to show the club’s supporters there has been a change.
“We want to prove to the supporters that we’re a changed dynamic and this is a big drive for us,” Miller said.
“Our emphasis is to provide a performance worthy of a win and back-to-back results give you that momentum”.
“Confidence levels are high but I have been strict with them in terms of not getting carried away”.
A rejuvenated David Carney, who was man-of-the-match in the Jets’ 2-1 win against the Wellington was proud of the result against Phoenix but maintained the team were not resting on their laurels ahead of the game against Sydney FC.
“It was a hard game out there against Wellington as it is not an easy place to go to and I think a lot of teams will struggle to come back with the three points,” Carney said.
“It’s always good to get the monkey off the back but we have not lost concentration”.
“Any one [team] in this league can beat anyone to bring you back down to earth”.
With last season’s top marksman Marc Janko departing the Sky Blues, Slovakian Filip Hološko made an immediate impact scoring his side’s equaliser against Melbourne City in their 1-1 draw.
However Jets head coach Miller said every player on the pitch would be dangerous.
“Sydney FC is a challenging fixture,” Miller said. “They’re very organised, disciplined and hard to break down out of possession”.
“We have to be clear in our decisions of how we engage and how we defend as a unit”.
Carney said the players were ready to prove critics wrong and give back to their loyal supporters.
“It’s a great [first] game at home against Sydney FC so hopefully the supporters come out”.
“If we can keep the mentality that we can’t get beaten we’ll be ok”.
