The Queensland Roar will need to break two longstanding Hyundai A-League records this Friday night if they are to triumph over Newcastle at Suncorp Stadium.
The Jets boast an outstanding record in Brisbane, having claimed victory in the previous four encounters.
Roar coach Frank Farina believes his side, boosted by their 3-0 victory over Perth, are well placed to put an end to the run.
“I think if we play to our strengths, as we did last week, we can compete with any team in the league and those sorts of records are meant to be broken,” Farina said.
“I think the difference on Friday night will be a collective thing, if all the players can back up and put in the performance they showed they are capable of against Perth, we’ll do well.”
The other hoodoo looming over the Roar’s head is the fact that they have never completed a victory the round after an away trip to Perth.
Farina was aware of the record, but dismissive of its importance.
“It’s a statistic there, we’re hoping we can change that on Friday night against Newcastle.”
Roar captain Craig Moore also talked down the statistic.
“I’m not a big stats man, so I don’t know a great deal about all that sort of stuff,” Moore said.
“For me personally, after a win, our aim is to go out and try and win every game.”
“Our home record continues to pop up as something that we definitely need to improve on, and why not Friday night?”
The Jets knocked the Roar out of the title race last season in an epic Preliminary Final, and while Farina didn’t want to talk revenge, he did acknowledge Newcastle had the wood over the Roar last season.
“I think Newcastle is where we lost the championship last year,” he said.
“We took two points from nine from them and most probably we should have taken seven, so that was the minor premiership, so hopefully we can turn that around this year.”
In an effort to combat the short turnaround after Sunday’s match in Perth, Farina changed the Roar’s usual weekly schedule.
“Players can sometimes get into a routine and sometimes it’s good to break that routine up.”
“I just felt after the game on Sunday we’d try something a bit different and give them the Tuesday off and get them back in on the Wednesday.”
“We’ll see, there’s no rhyme or reason or no magic formula that’s going to help you win a game on Friday night after a quick turnaround.”
