Gary van Egmond spoke to Jets TV about Newcastle’s ‘mixed performance’ in their 1-1 draw with Sydney FC on Sunday.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets head coach Gary van Egmond has described his side-s 1-1 draw with Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday as a mixed performance.
After a slow start to the match, the Jets found their feet and controlled the majority of the first half with Ruben Zadkovich putting them ahead with a free-kick in the 30th minute.
However, van Egmond said is was disappointing the Jets weren-t able to capitalise on their possession and territory by building a more sizeable advantage on the scoreboard.
“(Our performance) was a little bit mixed,” van Egmond said.
“I think the first ten minutes or so, Sydney were on top and we didn-t have ourselves organised as well as we would have liked. We probably didn-t do a few things we needed to do.
“For the rest of the first half though we started to dominate and for that part of the game it was really, really pleasing.
“The disappointing part was the fact that we didn-t get more goals. If we-re going to play that type of game where we press high, we need to get more goals from the work that we-re putting in to win that ball back.”
The Jets conceded from a Sydney FC corner midway through an evenly matched second half, but the draw meant Newcastle still maintained their unbeaten run this pre-season.
“Results wise, it-s always good (to be unbeaten),” he said.
“If you-re not getting a draw or a win in the pre-season, it can obviously lead to some doubt and some confidence issues.
“We-ve been mostly concentrating on the performance and what we have to do in regards to each game. We-re somewhat happy with how that-s going, but I think we can do a bit better.”
One aspect of the match that really pleased van Egmond was the way in which the Jets adapted to a slight change in their playing system.
The Jets started the match with a back three of Scott Neville, Josh Mitchell and Dominik Ritter and van Egmond was pleased with what he saw.
“I was very happy. It-s definitely a tactic that we-ll use this year,” he said.
“You have to have a plan A and a plan B. It doesn-t change in regards to the actual style of game that we play, but it does change things in regards to tactics.
“We have to be adaptable in case obviously other teams change things as well.”
The change meant regular left-back Craig Goodwin was able to play in a more advanced role in midfield.
“We looked at Craig in the midfield and we looked at him in a wide area a bit further up,” he said.
“He-s obviously shown in pre-season that he-s got an eye for goal, scoring a number of goals from the fullback position.
“We-re a little bit light on up front due to the fact we haven-t got our player from overseas yet, (James) Brown is available at the moment and Adam Taggart is another one who-s not here.
“So it-s good to know there are other players who can come in and do a job.”
The Jets- next trial match is the Members- season launch against Western Sydney Wanderers at Wanderers Oval, Broadmeadow on Saturday.
The game is a Members Only event. Jets fans can secure their entry to this match as well as all 13 of the Newcastle Jets- home games at Hunter Stadium this season by signing up to become a 2012/13 Jets Member HERE.
