Jets defender Daniel Mullen says Newcastle will need to produce a strong defensive display when the team travel to Western Australia to tackle Perth Glory on Monday night in order to lay the platform for the squad’s attackers to strut their stuff.
The last time Newcastle and Glory met was at Hunter Stadium on January 24, and on that day the Jets let themselves down, giving up a 1-0 lead to ultimately lose the match 6-1.
However since that afternoon Scott Miller’s squad have most certainly reacted and rebounded – they’ve conceded just five goals in their last five games and have picked up 10 points from a possible 15.
Mullen has been central to Newcastle’s largely strong defensive efforts all season; the former Dalian Aerbin man has helped ensure that the Jets have conceded 14 goals less than at the same point last campaign.
Mullen knows that the team will need to be up for the fight against a Perth outfit which has been in some scintillating attacking form of late.
“We’ve gotten back to being hard to beat,” Mullen said about the team’s performances throughout late, late January and February.
“We’re hard to break down again and we’re not conceding many goals per game.”
“Last week it was nice to get that clean sheet, and if you combine that with the attacking powers that we have at the moment you get a good finished product.”
“Leonardo is playing very well and it’s good to have Morten [Nordstrand] in as well – he adds that real quality up front.”
“We’re confident that if we get a goal or two we can win games, and that we can keep other teams out.”
“As of late we have been creating a lot of chances. Against Central Coast in the first half, although we didn’t have the final product, you could see that we were centimetres away from actually getting the ball into really dangerous areas.”
“It’s only a matter of time until we pull off a few goals in a game.”
“We won’t focus too much on their [Perth’s] individual players, we need to stick to our guns and do what we’ve been doing lately,” he said.
The Jets’ game against Glory will round out Hyundai A-League 2015/16 round 22, and Newcastle will leapfrog the purple-whites should they secure just the second win in the club’s history in Western Australia.
Perhaps a good omen for the Jets is that the last time the club won on the Central Coast, the team defeated Glory 2-1 in their very next game.
Perth Glory vs. Newcastle Jets – Hyundai A-League 2015/16 round 22
Monday 7 March 2016
nib Stadium, Perth
Kick-off: 8:00pm (AEDT), 5:00pm (local)
Social Media: Join the match conversation using #PERvNEW
Broadcast: Fox Sports 505
Radio: 1233 ABC Newcastle, ABC Grandstand Digital
