Newcastle Jets will go into Saturday night’s F3 derby against Sydney FC without key defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Newcastle Jets will go into Saturday night’s F3 derby against Sydney FC without key defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Topor-Stanley strained his hamstring in the 3-1 win over Melbourne Victory a fortnight ago and took the injury into last week’s 2-0 loss to the Mariners, where it just worsened during the match.
The towering defender will now spend a week resting in the hope he’ll recover in time for next week’s trans-Tasman clash against the in-form Phoenix in Wellington.
Taylor Regan has been named to replace Topor-Stanley in a 16-man squad to face Sydney this weekend, however he may start from the bench if Jets coach Gary van Egmond adopts an attacking formation with just a three-man defensive line of Tiago, Tarek Elrich and Byun Sung-hwan.
Van Egmond has included in-form youngster Chris Payne in the squad that also features four other forwards in Englishman Francis Jeffers, Ryan Griffiths, Jeremy Brockie and Labinot Halit.
Payne has been in sparkling form in the National Youth League scoring seven goals in the past three matches to force his way into the Hyundai A-League squad.
“He has been scoring goals in the youth team and it is all about getting runs on the board,” van Egmond said at the squad announcement on Thursday.
“So if you are doing well with the youth team and going well at training then you deserve to be called in.”
“We have named 16 bit if he is in the 15 then there is every chance that all the subs will get a guernsey especially the way we play by putting pressure on opponents.”
“It takes it’s toll on players, so having the three subs is extreme beneficial for us to be able to rotate players.”
The inclusion of Payne means there is no room for former skipper Michael Bridges, who has played just seven minutes since making his professional comeback six weeks ago.
“Bridgey will play with the youth team on Friday,” said van Egmond. “We just need to get him some more game time hopefully 60 minutes. Again it depends how he goes with the youth and see his effectiveness to see whether he will be right for the Hyundai A-League.”
Van Egmond said the meeting against old rivals Sydney would be a battle of two teams trying to find some consistency. The Jets came back to earth after the win over the Victory with a hard loss away to the Mariners, while Sydney were the talk of the league after halting Brisbane’s record unbeaten run before playing a lacklustre scoreless draw with the Gold Coast last start.
“They are not too dissimilar in relation to their inconsistency by their own admission,” said van Egmond.
“They are trying to find reason why they put in a performance of a lower standard in comparison to the high standards that they want to play at.”
“But they have some key players in their team Nicky Carle, Brett Emerton and Mark Bridge, who are very good players in this league and who can hurt you on any given day.”
