Ruben Zadkovich believes the Jets will be coming up against a Western Sydney team with ‘something to prove’ on Saturday night.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets midfielder Ruben Zadkovich believes the Jets will be coming up against a Western Sydney Wanderers team with ‘something to prove- when the two sides meet at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night.
The Wanderers have a number of ex-Jets in their ranks and Zadkovich believes that might give those players added motivation to get one up on their former Club.
“I just think they-re a strong team in general. Tony Popovic has done a great job with in such a short period of time,” Zadkovich said.
“He-s a really good coach and was an experienced player so I-m sure he-s going to have their players pumped up for this game.
“With them having a lot of ex-Newcastle players, they-re certainly going to have something to prove so it-ll be a tough game for sure.
“They-ve got some good players there and we-ve got to really wary of that, but in saying that we-ve got some great young players that have come in this year and done really well for us.
“I think as a squad we probably have the edge on them, but we have to go out there and probably stamp that authority.”
Zadkovich acknowledged the Jets would have to pay close attention to Western Sydney-s Japanese import, Shinji Ono to limit his impact during the match.
However, he said Newcastle would be more concerned with ensuring they offer sufficient support to their own marquee player, Emile Heskey.
“It-s great to have these marquee players in the league at the moment,” Zadkovich said.
“They-re bringing in the crowds and they bring something different on the field. You can see that with Heskey, you can see that with Del Piero, and I-m sure Ono is no different.
“To be honest I-ll be more focused on our marquee and trying to give him the service he deserves and I-m pretty sure if we keep creating chances, he-ll keep scoring.”
Zadkovich said the Jets were determined to bounce back after returning from Perth empty-handed for the 10th consecutive time last weekend.
“It definitely hurt. It was a long trip back and we-ve had the whole week to think about how we didn-t get any points from that game and how we probably should have,” he said.
“If we can really put our best foot forward this weekend, we should get something out of the game for sure.
“It-s a little bit ironic that in previous weeks we probably played a little bit poor and actually won the game, but then we went to Perth, played really well and lost the game.
“That-s the way it goes sometimes in football, but you-ve just got to keep ticking along and keep working hard.”
