Newcastle Jets boss Gary van Egmond bemoaned his side’s wasteful finishing in front of goal following their 3-0 loss to Perth Glory.
Newcastle Jets boss Gary van Egmond bemoaned his side’s wasteful finishing in front of goal following their 3-0 loss to Perth Glory.
The Jets have now drawn a blank in their past three outings, while marquee man Emile Heskey has failed to score since Round 5.
“At the moment we’re not putting the ball in the net when we create a number of chances,” van Egmond said.
“You’re never going to win games when that happens so from a confidence point of view they (the players) are probably down a bit.
“We need to pick ourselves up and really start to work hard again on the training field and get ready for the next week.”
Travis Dodd opened the scoring for Perth right on half-time and that proved to be the killer blow, according to the coach.
“That wasn’t a good time to cop a goal and obviously five minutes after the reset we copped another one,” said a disappointed van Egmond.
“Those goals when they are scored in that time frame are usually concentration or fatigue, one of the two, and probably more so from concentration with regard to both of those goals.
“It puts you on the back foot and makes it very difficult to try win a game.”
Van Egmond refused to be drawn into a discussion on referees after Ben Williams awarded Glory a 74th-minute penalty for a challenge by Josh Mitchell on Shane Smeltz inside the area.
“I’ve been through referees and been talking about referees so I’m not getting involved in it at all,” he said.
“If he’s deemed it’s a penalty then it’s a penalty, if he deems it’s a free kick it’s a free kick; I’m not getting involved in it anymore and I want the players and the game to have the headlines rather than the referees.”
While the Jets have been making news off the field this week due to a tax bill owed by owner Nathan Tinkler, van Egmond stressed that it has been business as usual for the players and coaching staff.
“It has no bearing (on us) whatsoever,” he said.
“We had a conversation very, very briefly yesterday and it was just about how we can’t control anything outside of the football.”
The Jets are back at Hunter Stadium next week to take on Sydney FC.
