A short turnaround, a trip to Adelaide, the chance to stay in the mix – as long a shot as it may be.
We head to the City of Churches for Friday night football against the Reds, a side who are within touching distance of the top four.
Newcastle’s hopes of cracking that elusive spot in the finals took a huge hit last weekend in Melbourne, as a slick City cruised to a 4-0 win.
FIVE THINGS: The talking points ahead of Friday
It was a big blow after what had been a superb 3-1 win over Perth the preceding week, with the likes of debutant, Tessa Tamplin performing very well.
Now, injury-ridden and just about out of the race, the Jets have nothing to lose against Adelaide.
Six points separate Jets from fourth place, and with two games remaining we require all six points and an incredible goal difference swing – possible, but not likely.
The Reds were one side which did leak goals last weekend though, going down to the Western Sydney Wanderers to hand the struggling cellar dwellers their first win of the Westfield W-League season.
United currently sit on 13 points, three more than the Jets, and could crack the four this weekend with a victory.
Team news
Deansy has revealed he’ll name a squad of 15 for the Friday night meeting, which means picking his side is a fairly straightforward affair.
Cortnee Vine will miss out after contracting tonsillitis, while Gema Simon has been battling injury for a number of weeks and with finals all but out of the question, the decision has been made to rest her.
The two outs have handed a chance to a pair of youngsters to come in and showcase their wares at this late stage of the season.
Renee Pountney signed her first W-League contract at the beginning of the season and will be on the bench this Friday, while Sophie Nenadovic is in line to make her first appearance of the season.
From the coach
“Obviously we’re all disappointed that we are in the situation we’re in and we just need to keep working with sort of one eye on next year, especially for the fringe players who are getting opportunities now,” coach, Craig Deans said.
“It’s good for them to show me and everyone else what they’ve got and make sure that they’re back here next year and they can contribute to hopefully a better season next year.
“We still, I think, have a 0.1% of a chance of making it. It is highly unlikely but we’ll just go and try and be a bit more positive than we were I think on Sunday against City.
“We were just a little bit, not negative, but just a bit worried about losing I think and that’s probably not the best thing for us and we just need to make sure we don’t do that again and go out and play with as much freedom as we can and be as aggressive as we can.”
