Clayton Zane believes Jets striker Adam Taggart should be considered for Ange Postecolgu’s World Cup squad.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets coach Clayton Zane has hailed Jets striker Adam Taggart as a strong chance to make the Socceroos World Cup squad following his side’s crucial 1-0 victory over Melbourne Heart at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.
The 20 year-old attacker netted the only goal of the match early in the second half to steer the Jets to just their third home win of the season and end Heart’s five-match winning streak.
“He has to be a bolter for Brazil, personally I would take that type of that player just to give him the experience because he’s going to be around in the national set up for some time,” Zane said.
“The boy never stops finishing at training. All he wants to do is hit the back of the net. He’s desperate to score goals.
“It’s good for him to get a little run of goals leading into the finals, he’s a very important player for us.”
Taggart’s 11th goal of the season puts him in a good position for the golden boot award and Zane said his current form deserves to be rewarded.
“The strong points for Taggs is that he’s a goal scorer, he’s so hungry and he’s got that turn off pace that will allow him to go and play in a decent league in Europe.
“Based on that performance today, he could find himself on the plane to Brazil.
“I’d love to see someone like Adam Taggart given the chance because he’s been quite consistent this year.”
Zane admitted it was not his side’s best performance but he was pleased with the determination and resilience of his troops as they held on for their third win in four matches.
“Yeah its huge, it’s great to overcome that hurdle of winning a home match again, I think that takes a little bit of pressure off us,” he said.
“We still looked lively on the counter attack, some good points to take out of it but probably the biggest one and the most positive for me is that it was an ugly win and I don’t think we’ve had too many of them this season.
“We’re not home and hosed yet, we’ve still got a lot of work to do because it wasn’t a pretty performance but we can be a lot better at home and take a lot of confidence from that.”
The Jets had several opportunities to kill the game off in the second half but some wasteful finishing and some excellent keeping from Andrew Redmayne kept the visitors in the match until the final whistle.
“It was one of those games where the Heart were always in it so we did need that second goal,” Zane said.
“Redmayne was terrific with some of those one on one saves and on another day you come in here and you’re punching yourself for not finishing them off but they did well to close the game out.
“We were desperate, credit to the boys we’re starting to show we can knick goals on the counter attack so we’re going to be a bit of a threat heading into this finals period I hope.”
