Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond has said his side will take a sense of renewed confidence into next Wednesday night’s Asian Champions League clash with Nagoya Grampus in Newcastle.
The Jets coach said the team was buoyed by a solid 1-1 away draw with the J-League giants in last week’s Asian Champions League match in Japan and would head into next week’s fixture with the knowledge they have the ability to knock over their more fancied opponents.
“We were very pleased with the result of picking up a point away from home,” van Egmond said.
“Overall I thought our discipline was great and our defensive shape was very good.”
“The challenge now is to replicate that good performance at home and get the three points.”
However, van Egmond did concede his side will rely on the depth of its squad with key defenders Ljubo Milicevic and Adam D’Apuzzo to miss next the match due to suspension.
Those losses are balanced somewhat with the news Italian playmaker Fabio Vignaroli, and strikers Jason Hoffman and Sean Rooney are on track to return from injury for the match.
“We have a couple of players suspended through yellow cards so we will have to have a look and see who we replace those players with,” van Egmond said.
“But we are very versatile and so tactically the boys are quite aware of what they their roles are, wherever they play.”
“We also have three players coming back from injury who should be fine for the return game in Newcastle. So that will give us some consolation in regards to bolstering the squad.”
