Newcastle striker Ryan Griffiths has warned opposition defences to expect plenty of headaches once the Jets’ attack fully gels.
Newcastle striker Ryan Griffiths has warned opposition defences to expect plenty of headaches once the Jets’ attack fully gels.
Griffiths, Emile Heskey and Craig Goodwin all scored top quality goals in Newcastle’s thrilling 3-2 win over Sydney FC on Saturday.
Boom English import Heskey has only been training with the club for three weeks and Griffiths admitted the big English forward has forced a slight change in the Jets game-plan.
But once they get those details sorted and the combinations better formed, Griffiths believes the Jets strike-force will have plenty of venom.
“We have been working on it,” Griffiths said at training on Monday.
“It has been different bringing Emile into the team.
“We have always played out wide but it is another option for us to be able to knock it into Emile and I can run off him and Craig (Goodwin) can run off him, Chilli (James Virgilli) can run off him,
“So if we have the full squad out there and full fitness we are definitely going to be hard to beat and for defenders it is going to be quite a headache.”
Griffiths had one of his best games for the club, scoring an opportunistic goal to open the scoring in the 12th minute before turning provider to play the last pass for Heskey and Goodwin’s goals.
Despite the sparkling performance, the 31-year-old said he is far from his best form.
“I think it was pretty good but there is more to improve on,” he said.
“If I am going to be quite frank with myself I probably should have finished a couple more goals.
“But in terms of the way that we played and the way we carried ourselves as a squad it was a great game.”
One of the chances Griffiths should have buried came in the final moments of the match when he found himself one-on-one with Sydney goalkeeper Ivan Necevski.
But instead of shooting for goal he squared the ball to Brazilian team-mate Bernardo, who was swamped by the Sky Blues defence.
Griffiths said he would not give up a golden goal-scoring opportunity in the future.
“I shouldn’t have passed it,” he said.
“I saw Bernando in the centre and I thought he was going to make a run. He didn’t.
“But I think next time, and this just comes from playing week in, week out you get composure in yourself, and next time it comes around I won’t be passing it.”
Griffiths did say that along with a good win it was nice to get one over his big brother Adam, who had a tough match in the heart of the Sydney defence trying to mark Heskey.
“He didn’t have the best of games which is fortunate for us because they really needed him back there ,” Griffiths said of his brother’s performance.
“I guess we just pounced on a few mistakes the Sydney defence made and we just punished them which is a good thing – we haven’t done that for a while.”
The attractive style of football Newcastle played in the win over Sydney should bode well for this Saturday’s F3 Derby clash with the Central Coast Mariners at Hunter Stadium with another big crowd expected to attend.
“I think the home crowd last time was brilliant but we really let them down (against Adelaide), but it was a great atmosphere,” he said.
“But I am sure they will come along again after watching that Sydney game – why wouldn’t you?”
