Jets coach Gary van Egmond believes the way Newcastle came back to register their first win in a month with the 3-2 victory over the Gold Coast will be invaluable to the team’s confidence.
Jets coach Gary van Egmond believes the way Newcastle came back to register their first win in a month with the 3-2 victory over the Gold Coast will be invaluable to the team-s confidence.
The Jets looked in control leading 2-0 midway through the second half courtesy of a brace from Kiwi international Jeremy Brockie.
However Gold Coast fashioned two goals in the space of five minutes to level at 2-2 before Newcastle grabbed the winner through substitute Labinot Haliti in the 79th minute.
The win moves the Jets back into the top six for the first time since November and van Egmond believes the nature of the win will build trust in sticking to his game plan.
“Obviously when a team is leading 2-0 the impetus is with the team that has scored last and they have the momentum for us to hit back so quickly is really pleasing that we found a way to score so in that aspect I was extremely pleased,” van Egmond said after the match.
“Again we have some inconsistencies but there were some parts in there that were really good. It is a work in progress as we have mentioned before.”
“The difficulty for us is because we have gone through a bit of a tough spell is getting confidence with each other and [this result] will go a long way into getting that confidence.”
“You are not happy to concede any goals and we have to get better at shutting out a game but to come back from that shows the character in this team what they are about and as far as the players are concerned to win back belief and support from the fans and members.”
The Jets coach engineered a number of positional changes in this match including moving attacking midfielder Ruben Zadkovich to right back and pushing Tarek Elrich into a right wing position as well as starting with teenagers Jacob Pepper and Ben Kantarovski in the midfield.
And van Egmond said he was pleased with the performance of those players.
“It is good to have two 19-year-old kids in the centre of the midfield to perform how they did,” he said.
“Early on they were a little nervy but as the game went on they had more confidence and understanding in each other.”
“Ruben has fantastic energy and he can get up and down all down and he has a fantastic cross on him and he is very difficult to beat on a one versus one scenario, which are all great aspects for a right fullback. We have started to look at him there and Tarek as a junior always played further up front and I thought both their contributions were excellent today in attack and defence.”
Despite the win van Egmond said there was still plenty of room for improvement in his side.
“Early on I am not sure if both teams looked to win the game,” he said.
“It was a case of both teams just knocking the ball around sometimes put in a long ball or a ball down the line and see if we can play off that a little bit.”
“Then all of a sudden we started to get some more rhythm and towards the back end of the first half we started to play some better football. And in the beginning of the second half we were well and truly in control but we had some lapses in concentration, which we have to be better in.”
