Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond said his side still have some improving to do despite registering a confidence-boosting 3-1 win over a star-studded Melbourne Victory outfit on Saturday night.
Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond said his side still have some improving to do despite registering a confidence-boosting 3-1 win over a star-studded Melbourne Victory outfit on Saturday night.
The Jets overcame an early goal to Victory midfielder Carlos Hernandez to draw level through a Ryan Griffiths penalty in the 27th minute and then hit the lead in just after half time when Labinot Haliti headed in a Jeremy Brockie cross at the back post.
The Jets sealed the win in the 88th minute when Griffiths was on the spot to pick up his second goal of the night after Ruben Zadkovich had pounced on an error from Victory midfielder Isaka Cernak.
The win lifts Newcastle above the Victory into the top four of the Hyundai A-League ladder and snaps Melbourne’s six-match unbeaten streak.
“I am not 100 per cent over the moon with the result but the resilience we showed and the effectiveness in the front third was very pleasing,” van Egmond said after the match.
“The consistency we are showing is getting better and better.”
Van Egmond gave credit to Melbourne for controlling the opening 20 minutes of the match but was extremely proud of the way his side stuck to the game plan to swing the momentum in their favour.
“As far as early on, credit to Melbourne because they pressured us where we couldn’t change the point of our attack,” van Egmond said.
“Then we started to switch the play and the first goal came from a switch of play from Nikolai (Topor-Stanley) and it ended up being a penalty.”
“We spoke about how important it is with our positional play going from one side to the other.”
“We had good positioning and that was a reflection of the good positioning in the midfield and that saw more long balls from them (Victory) than they would normally do.”
Van Egmond added that he was pleased with his side’s progression since he had taken over the coaching role after Round 3, but re-iterated that it was still a “work in progress”.
“As far as the positional play and the possession game we want to play and the pressing I think the boys are starting to believe we can play that way,” van Egmond said.
“And what is great is that they are getting the rewards for it from all the hard work. There is still a way to go but it is pleasing that the boys get out of it tonight what they have put in.”
“We feel pretty comfortable as a group in what we are trying to do. We are in third on the ladder now so that is OK.”
