Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond was at a loss to explain his side’s poor form away from home after they fell to a 3-0 defeat to Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park.
Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond was at a loss to explain his side’s poor form away from home after they fell to a 3-0 defeat to Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park.
The loss on Saturday night means the Jets have shipped eight goals on the road while scoring just once, in stark contrast to their scintillating home form that has seen them pick up nine points from their opening three games.
The win was the Heart’s first of the season and just their second home win in 12 months but despite Newcastle’s poor showing, van Egmond couldn’t explain why the team’s form has been vastly different on their travels.
“Again, it’s one of those things where your preparation is good, everyone feels good, you’re coming off the back of a win against the team that was coming second (2-0 win over Perth), the feeling in the camp is great, but when it comes to the actual game unfortunately right at this moment, we’re struggling away from home,” van Egmond said.
“I’d hate to be the bookies, one week we’re flying and then the next we’re struggling.”
The Jets lost 3-1 away to Gold Coast United and 2-0 to Perth Glory on their other road trips but van Egmond was quick to pay tribute to the Heart, who he noted were due for a win.
“Heart have been playing some good football and they’ve been a little bit unlucky until tonight,” he said.
“Heart definitely took the ascendancy early then half way through the first half I thought we started to come back into the match, and started to control the match for periods of time. Then coming into the half I thought we were well and truly in the game.”
“Coming out, I thought it was fairly even, we made a couple of subs and it started to go a little bit the other way.”
“We chased the game at the end, we gifted them one which made it 2-0 which was always going to be difficult to come back from there. We went man-on-man at the back.”
Newcastle’s English striker Francis Jeffers was a little more blunt when describing the nature of the loss.
“We didn’t play well enough to get anything out of the game. We didn’t come out of the blocks like last week, we weren’t as sharp and Heart deserved to win the football match, simple as that,” Jeffers said.
With the scores at 0-0 Jeffers was the subject of a penalty claim moments before half time after he appeared to have his shirt tugged in the box, but the 30-year-old batted away suggestions there was little contact.
“I felt a tug on me shirt and that brought me to ground. You look to the linesman to make the right decision, I definitely felt contact,” he said.
