Roy O’Donovan and Wes Hoolahan can solve the Newcastle Jets goalscoring crisis, according to head coach Craig Deans.
The Hyundai A-League’s joint lowest scorers fired their third blank in five games during a 0-0 draw against Western United, despite dominating the shot count 26-4 at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The Jets struck a deal to bring O’Donovan back to the Hunter on Saturday, following six goals in 12 games for Brisbane Roar, and marquee attacker Wes Hoolahan – nicknamed ‘the Irish Messi’ – is edging ever closer to making his debut after five months sidelined.
Newcastle have scored only 13 goals in 15 matches this season, and Deans admits the same problems reared their head on Saturday.
“Desperation, composure, quality at the key moments – it’s very similar to last week,” Deans said.
“You can’t fault the effort of the players. It feels like we lost to be honest.”
“Everyone is disappointed. The only big positive from the game was the clean sheet. It’s been a while since we’ve had one of those.”
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It had been 64 days since Newcastle shut out Western Sydney Wanderers in a 2-0 win on November 30. Since then, the Jets have slumped to rock bottom, three points behind their F3 rivals, the Central Coast Mariners, having collected 10 points from 15 matches.
But the introduction of ex-Jets and Mariners hitman O’Donovan – who has 45 Hyundai A-League goals to his name over the past five seasons – could make a world of difference, says Deans.
“[O’Donovan] is the type of player, in a game like that, maybe he would have got a couple of goals,” Deans added.
“He’s in the box, he’s dangerous, he’s aggressive. He gets in good areas so having him back next week is a huge bonus for us.”
O’Donovan could be paired with Republic of Ireland international Hoolahan in the F3 Derby against the Mariners in the Hunter next Sunday.
The 37-year-old pushed hard for a starting place against Western United but Deans wanted to wait until Hoolahan was 100% ready.
“Wes comes with a fair bit of confidence, being an experienced player. Roy is exactly the same,” Deans said.
“Their quality as players is there for everyone to see. Their records are excellent – Wes in England and Roy’s record here over the last three or four years is very good – so I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to look at both of them in next weekend’s game.”
“We want to continue with the performances we’re putting in but we need to win the game.”
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Western Untied head coach Mark Rudan revealed Alessandro Diamanti missed out with an ankle injury which he played through last time out, but expects his Italian talisman to be back next week.
“It was touch and go,” Rudan said.
“The week prior against Adelaide, [Diamanti] hadn’t trained with the team but he put his hand up to play with a swollen ankle.
“He scored last week but it just got a lot worse. It was a similar process this week in his rehab and he just couldn’t pull up again.
“We missed his quality. He’s able to hold the ball up and take pressure away from us. And he can always ping a pass and put a through ball in and take a strike himself.
“In saying that, it gave Joshua Cavallo an opportunity to make his A-League debut.”
Round 18
Newcastle Jets v Central Coast Mariners
Sunday, 9 February
McDonald Jones Stadium
Kick off: 4.00pm AEDT
Western United on BYE