Newcastle Jets boss Mark Jones says a lack of confidence is to blame for the slow starts which have plagued his side’s early rounds.
The hosts conceded in the opening half-hour for the third time in four weeks in slipping to a first defeat of the season against Sydney FC on Saturday.
Sky Blues maintain perfect start after downing Jets
“In the first few rounds we’ve been nervous in the first 10 to 15 minutes for some reason,” Jones told Fox Sports.
“It would be nice to start with confidence but for whatever reason that’s not the case at the moment.
“It’s difficult to gel together when we’ve had a few injuries and we haven’t played the same team each week
“It’s just being confident. Being out there, having a swagger and being confident in your own ability.”
Despite struggling to regularly threaten the Sky Blues, Jones believes his side could have avoided a maiden defeat had Steven Ugarkovic made the most of his golden first-half opportunity.
“We had a glorious opportunity near half-time – 99 times out of 100 Stevie (Ugarkovic) scores that,” Jones said.
“If we score that we come in at 1-1 at half-time and everything is fine.
“We were hardly out of the game or chasing the game (at that stage).”
