The Newcastle Jets will be hoping to build on their imposing record against Melbourne when the two sides meet in the opening match of Round 3 of the 2008/09 Hyundai A-League on Friday night.
The Jets travel to Telstra Dome confident in the knowledge they are the Victory’s ‘bogey team’ with three wins from five games for the Novocastrians in Melbourne and an overall record of five wins and two draws from their nine games against the season-two champions.
“I know all our boys like playing down there,” said van Egmond of the games in Melbourne. “It is a nice stadium to play at, the dressing rooms are good, the pitch is always in a good state and there is always a big crowd and I think they are probably the main reasons why the boys get up for the game – and the match-ups, our match-ups always seem to go quite well against theirs.”
“So we are definitely looking for three points against Melbourne, but it’s always a tough game down there.”
“They’ve recruited well and they’ve got a lot of good players and in some instances it must be quite difficult for Ernie (Merrick) to select a squad, or even an eleven, with the amount of playing talent that he’s got down there.”
“They’ve got big expectations this year in regards to winning the league and I know our boys are well and truly looking forward to the challenge.”
Van Egmond said the 1-0 loss to the Victory in this year’s pre-season mattered little as both teams were trialing players but said Newcastle would be boosted by the return of Jason Hoffman from Qantas Young Socceroo duties and the debut showing of Danish import Jesper Hakansson, who has overcome a calf injury to earn a position in the starting 11.
“Jesper will start tomorrow and I think he’ll play a more forward going position,” said van Egmond.
“The combination in that front third looks good and as we’ve stated, it is going to take a little bit of time to get used to people but that is only going to come with more time together and understanding with each other.”
“I think most teams now are very wary of what we can do, when you’ve got the likes of Jesper coming in, and our other imports, coupled with the likes of the Joel Griffiths’ and co we should go well.”
