Newcastle boss Branko Culina believes his side created enough chances to come away from Hindmarsh Stadium with a victory on Friday night despite sharing the points in a goalless draw with Adelaide United.
Culina said his side had come to Adelaide expecting to claim maximum points but admitted a lack of match practice ultimately cost the Jets, as Newcastle lacked the final polish required to find the back of the net.
Captain Michael Bridges squandered two clear chances by firing straight into the arms of United keeper Eugene Galekovic while Sean Rooney and Ali Abass were also guilty of wasting golden opportunities.
“We’ve prepared ourselves this year to go into ever game knowing we can win, not just hoping and we were fairly confident we’ll get the three points,” Culina said.
“I thought we had some really good chances. Bridgey had a couple, Rooney had a couple. It’s probably we haven’t played enough games and we’re a little bit rusty in that part of the field.”
“If you look at the two teams we’re the only team that created chances, they didn’t create. They just crossed the ball in. We had enough chances but we were probably just on the night, not quite ready for it.”
Culina dismissed claims his strikers were selfish and that wasted chances may have been converted into goals if players had decided to lay off rather than pull the trigger.
He also praised Bridges’ new ‘libero’ role playing in behind the strikers and said he hoped the Jets will be more clinical in Round 2 when they take on the new kids on the block Melbourne Heart.
“Michael has a lot more to offer us in that particular role once we decided the system we wanted to play,” he said.
“We’re a very structured team in defence and in midfield. Up front we like to give them a license and the freedom to express themselves and we’ll continue to do that.”
“Tonight it didn’t quite work as well as we would have liked but hopefully it will for future games. Hopefully the players will benefit from having a game under the belt and will be a bit sharper and more accurate in front of goal next week.”
The former Sydney FC boss said once the Jets’ full quota of stars take to the pitch a very different Newcastle outfit could be expected.
“We’re still a couple of players short. Once that’s in place I’m sure you’ll find quite a different Newcastle than what you’ve seen in the past and maybe tonight we showed that,” he said.
