Gary van Egmond is expecting a tightly-fought contest when the Jets take on Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets head coach Gary van Egmond is expecting a tightly-fought contest when the Jets take on Western Sydney Wanderers at Hunter Stadium on Saturday night.
Van Egmond said the Jets would have to ensure they are switched on for the entire 90 minutes to take all three points on Saturday.
“They-re a different proposition Western Sydney Wanderers. They-re an extremely mobile team and a very fit team,” van Egmond said.
“They put a lot of pressure on you and look to take advantage of you on transitional moments when you turn the ball over.
“It won-t be over until the lights are off and they-re in the bus.
“You have to make sure that you-re on your game all the time whether that be at set-pieces, 50-50 balls or whatever it may be, because they-ll try and force and error and try to capitalise on that.”
The Jets have the possibility to leapfrog the Wanderers into second place with a win on Saturday night and Van Egmond said the match provides the Jets with an opportunity to show the rest of the Hyundai A-League that they are contenders this season.
“We-re at home and if you want to be a serious football team this year, you need to win this weekend and you need to beat a team like the Wanderers to show that you-re fair dinkum,” van Egmond said.
“I think that it-s going to be very tight game, both teams don-t like to give too much away, both teams are pretty mobile and work hard, so I think it will be a good contest.
“As a Club and as a team we need to keep developing and this weekend we have a great opportunity, but it-s only an opportunity and we need to take it.
“It would be great to get a huge Novocastrian support on Saturday night at the stadium to support these boys and make sure we win the battle both on and off the field.”
Van Egmond said the Jets were looking at the possibility of strengthening their squad-s depth with a injury replacement for Scott Neville.
“With Scott Neville being out with a long term injury, there-s obviously an opportunity to replace him,” van Egmond said.
“We also need to see what happens with Nathan Burns and we-ll go from there, but until we get that clarified we can-t really bring anyone else in, but it-s important to have provisions in place.”
Newcastle Jets v Western Sydney Wanderers
Saturday, December 14
Hunter Stadium
Kick-off 7.45pm
Tickets available from PROticket.
