Newcastle Jets marquee Emile Heskey is hoping to make it a clean sweep of scoring against Sydney FC when the two sides meet in their Round 19 A-League clash.
Newcastle Jets marquee Emile Heskey is hoping to make it a clean sweep of scoring against Sydney FC when the two sides meet in their Round 19 A-League clash at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.
Heskey scored in Newcastle’s thrilling 3-2 win over the Sky Blues in Sydney in Round 2 before netting the winner in a tense 2-1 victory at Hunter Stadium in December and he is hoping to make it three goals from three matches this weekend.
“You do have teams that you obviously have a bit of a purple patch against and hopefully I can keep that going,” Heskey said at team training on Friday.
“I just try and play the best I can at the time and the goals will come.
“But the main thing is getting the points and the team is raring to go for that.”
Heskey said the Jets will be wary of an invigorated and very different Sydney team to the ones they’ve played earlier this season with former Socceroo Jason Culina, who was released by the Newcastle club last year before he had even kicked a ball on the pitch.
“They’ve got some players that they’ve added and it’s taken them to another dimension, but we’ve got to stay confident and stick to our game plan,” Heskey said.
“(Alessandro) Del Piero speaks for himself and Culina, the little bits I’ve seen of him, he’s neat and tidy so he’ll make them tick as well.
“We’ve really got to stay focused and be prepared for a tough game.”
The former England international said that the shock departure of club captain Jobe Wheelhouse this week would provide a spur for his side to honour his legacy with a win.
“He (Wheelhouse) has been a great captain and a great servant to the club and he’ll be missed because the lads love him here,” Heskey said.
“But we’ll go out there and hopefully put in a good performance for him as well.
“It’s another big game, they’re all big until the end of the season for us.
“We want to try and get ourselves in those playoff spots so it’s very important, and the lads are up for it.”
