After a disappointing loss in Round 7, Newcastle Jets head coach Rob Stanton challenged his side to show more fight for the club – and on Saturday night, they answered the call with a thumping 4-0 win over Perth Glory at HBF Park.
The Jets picked Glory apart in a three-goal first-half, with Thomas Aquilina starting the party and both Lachlan Bayliss and Ben Gibson scoring their first Isuzu UTE A-League goals before the 26-minute mark in Perth.
Gibson doubled his tally one minute after half-time as the Jets ended their four-game losing streak in style on the road.
FOUR GAMES, 18 GOALS! Where Saturday’s goalfest ranks among league’s highest-scoring matchdays
After overseeing a fourth-consecutive defeat last weekend, Stanton questioned his squad’s willingness to dig in and grind out results, and considered bringing boxing gloves to training to encourage his players to show some fight in an extraordinary post-match press conference.
But after Friday night’s victory, Stanton was full of pride in his players for claiming their second win of the season and carving a four-point gap between themselves and bottom-placed Glory.
Stanton joined Network 10 post-game where he was asked by Teo Pellizzeri about what the commentator described as “one of the great A-League press conferences”, and whether he got the response he was looking for from his side in Perth.
“Yes, I did,” Stanton said.
“Last week was something (where) I was asked a question and I expressed an opinion, because I’m committed to what I do.
“I think there’s a lot of people out there that have an opinion on everything and the commitment to nothing. I expressed an opinion because I’m committed to working with the players, developing them. Tonight, they’ve given a terrific performance for the fans.
“But they’ve been pretty good all year to be honest, and haven’t had the rub of the green or the results. Tonight, I think all the hard work they’ve put in, they’ve been rewarded and deservedly so.”
