Newcastle coach Branko Culina says his side won’t be affected by their clash with Melbourne Heart being relocated to Port Macquarie Regional Sports Stadium due to the unplayable surface at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
It is the second match to be taken away from the venue in a week after a Super-X motocross event on October 16 caused significant damage to the playing surface, forcing the postponement of Wednesday night’s clash between the Jets and the Fury.
Culina said the situation was far from ideal but he was doing his best to keep his players focused on football.
“We train accordingly to the fact that we are playing a game – that is all we can do,” he said at training on Wednesday.
“We can not do much about it – the only thing that it means is that we will have about 15 games up our sleeve more than other teams.”
“The last three or four sessions have been excellent and everyone is excited by what is going on and it is a similar feeling to how we started the season where we were hungry and optimistic.
“It has been well documented that we went through some troubles since then but we are back to the stage when we started – the boys are ready.”
However, Jets’ staff are optimistic the ground will be in order for Newcastle’s much-touted match against David Beckham’s LA Galaxy on November 27.
LA Galaxy President Tom Payne was in Newcastle on Wednesday to inspect accommodation, training facilities, travel options and for general sightseeing, and he assured fans the Galaxy’s game against the Jets next month would go ahead as planned.
He said he was told the NSW Government had spent $500,000 to lay a new surface at EnergyAustralia Stadium as of November 1 and said that he was confident the pitch would be up to scratch for the exhibition match.
