It must feel like Déjà vu at the moment for Newcastle Jets fans, who today watched another performance in which the Jets created chance after chance but failed to secure the win.
Western United walked away with all three points after an efficient victory, scoring both of their first half goals with their only attempts at goal.
Newcastle on the other hand had 10 shots in the half, with Jamie Young producing vital saves that frustrated the home side.
Newcastle did find their way back into the game via a Beka Mikeltadze penalty in the 33rd minute. It looked like it could be the catalyst for what would’ve been a deserved comeback, however Western United held on and ended up scoring again in the second half to secure a 3-1 victory.
Newcastle coach Arthur Papas summarised the match well and doesn’t believe this result is indicative of any larger-scale problems for the side.
“On a performance level, it’s not a terrible performance,” he said.
“We switched off on a throw for the first goal. Second goal, just the organisation and the intent wasn’t there.”
He takes aim at the simple mistakes that meant the Jets couldn’t capitilise on what was thought to have been a winnable match.
“If we’re going to concede those type of goals it’s going to be tough to win games,” Papas said.
This result sees the Jets’ run of excellent performances come to an end at an unfortunate time. One more unbeaten result would’ve meant equaling their longest streak of such games, with the other runs of seven games undefeated coming in 2005/06, 2007/08, and 2010/11.
Papas, however, isn’t interested in trivial records, and is more focused on results overall, which would mean not allowing this loss to compound and take the momentum away from them coming into the next few fixtures.
“We just keep looking at our performances on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“We’ve been through a lot as this year goes on, and we’ve shown many times our ability to respond to situations.
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One of the biggest strengths in this current Newcastle Jets side would be their resilience. Conceding two goals in the first half on the counter, after starting the match so energetically, many teams would have taken a hit to their psyche and not been able to recover.
Instead, the Jets didn’t let the setback falter them, and pushed even harder for a reply after conceding.
“The team has a great mentality, there’s not one part of that out there that I questioned.” Papas said.
“They’ve always got the intent to want to keep pushing and not giving up and supporting each other.”
Newcastle face Wellington Phoenix away from home next week in what is sure to be a tough but important fixture for both sides.
Only one point separates the teams on the ladder, and the three points on offer for either team could give them breathing room in the race for a finals position.
Feature Image Credit: Newcastle Jets
