Roar goalkeeper Liam Reddy is expecting the Newcastle Jets to show no signs of their cellar-dwelling status when they arrive ready to play at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
After losing their eighth game of the season to Sydney on Sunday, the Jets will be desperate to end a six-match winless run and give themselves a slight of hope of finals action.
The Roar will also be keen to pick up maximum points after two draws on the road saw them slip to fourth on the Hyundai A-League ladder.
“We’re still undefeated on the road but I think we need to start winning some games,” Reddy said.
“If we can’t win this week we’re going to be in a little bit of trouble, we might drop out of the four, so it’s a big game for us.”
Newcastle’s title defence may have fallen to pieces but Reddy is wary of a team that has won in Brisbane earlier in the year.
“We’re pretty confident but they’re always up for it when they come up here,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter where they’re coming on the ladder I think they’ll definitely be ready to play because they haven’t lost up here.”
The Roar coach said he enjoyed the win against his former team in the last meeting.
“I’ve got a lot of good friends there but obviously they enjoy getting points against us too.”
“Winning this game might stop them making the top four which would be nice but it still won’t make up for last season (when the Jets knocked the Roar out of the finals).”
With Jets striker Joel Griffiths returning from suspension, Reddy said the Roar’s watertight defence would need to be on their game.
“We’ll have out work cut out for the back four and myself keeping him contained so it should be a good game,” he said.
“We’ve been happy all year with how we’ve been going defensively.”
“We’ve conceded the least amount of goals but we’ve been lucky that we haven’t had to make drastic changes so that’s helped.”
