Newcastle heads to Brisbane to take on the Roar in the opening match of Round 13 confident it can turn the tables on its Queensland foes on Friday night.
The Jets were beaten 3-0 by the Roar in Newcastle earlier this season but coach Branko Culina believes his side has learned from the mistakes they made in that match.
“I think we were patting ourselves on the back before that game because we had just beaten the Gold Coast and then gotten a draw in Melbourne and we thought, ‘now we have two games at home, Brisbane will be the first one of those – all is going to be sweet’,” Culina said.
“We really let ourselves down in that game and from there on it all went pear-shaped for us. I don’t think it was that we played badly it is just that we lost focus and we got punished with two goals in two minutes and after that it was all over.”
“We had a lot to learn from that game and the concentration and discipline is something that you have to have for the whole of the game if you want to be a top team. And that was the key lesson we learnt from that game.”
Culina said the Roar’s change of coach would have a positive effect on the Queensland team but he feels his side will still have what it takes to take the points on Friday night.
“Every time there is a change of coach there seems to be a different attitude by the players and I think they have made some changes, we saw that against Sydney – they went from a diamond midfield shape to a flat four in the middle and I think they will change it again this week,” Culina said.
“It is always a difficult time but if we are going to be the team we want to be we have to get something out of these games. We showed earlier that we were inconsistent with our results, now we have to show we can be consistent.”
“This team has proven it is a good football playing team but what we have to learn is to fight, scratch and do whatever it takes to win a football game – we have to learn to win no matter and it is not enough to do it in a derby and then forget about it in a week.”
