Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka has praised his side’s resolve and character after a 2-1 win over Newcastle put the Sky Blues level with ladder-leader Gold Coast.
The 2-1 win, which featured goals from Mark Bridge and Steve Corica either side of one from the Jets from Matt Thompson, moved Sydney which was without star trio John Aloisi, Karol Kisel and Stephan Keller to 13 points from seven games and behind Gold Coast United on goal difference only.
The fact his side was able to achieve the desired result without a first-choice XI was particularly pleasing for the Czech.
“I have to say that all players showed tough, strong character,” Lavicka said.
“It’s a very difficult situation because we had 12, 13 available players for this game.”
“All players who played showed strong character and were hungry to win. I appreciate it.”
Captain Corica agreed, saying the pressure was on after consecutive losses against North Queensland and Gold Coast.
“It was a good performance. They put us under a lot of pressure in the second half, the boys stood strong.”
“It showed a lot of character because after two losses you might go into your shell.”
“Today we showed we’re up for it. Even with a lot of players out we showed a lot of fighting spirit.”
Jets coach Branko Culina also praised his team’s effort but said it was ‘little consolation, no consolation’.
“No excuse. We’re just at the moment not good enough,” he admitted.
“You can paint and colour it whatever way you like. I don’t accept it and if I accept it as a club then we’ll keep dishing it out every week.”
“The effort was fabulous but it’s disappointing that we made critical errors at critical times.”
“We gifted them the win.”
Newcastle has slipped to sixth on the table and will be without Tarek Elrich for at least match after he was sent off for a studs up challenge on Sung-Hwan Byun late in the match.
