Newcastle Jets defender Ruben Zadkovich said he was ‘champing at the bit’ to return from suspension and play this Saturday’s crucial Hyundai A-League match against the Brisbane Roar at Hunter Stadium.
Newcastle Jets defender Ruben Zadkovich said he was ‘champing at the bit’ to return from suspension and play this Saturday’s crucial Hyundai A-League match against the Brisbane Roar at Hunter Stadium.
Zadkovich was forced to watch on last weekend after being suspended for picking up his eighth yellow card of the season in the 3-1 win over the Victory the week previous.
But the midfielder-cum-defender said after a vigorous training session on Tuesday that he can’t wait to get back on the field and help his side push for a finals berth with two rounds remaining.
“It wasn’t much fun (watching from the sidelines) and the result wasn’t too crash hot either,” Zadkovich said of the frustrating 1-1 draw with the Gold Coast on the weekend.
“The boys didn’t play as well as they can on the weekend so we are all looking to try to pick it up this weekend.”
“I am champing at the bit. They (Brisbane) are pretty much the benchmark of football in the A-League so it will be good to prove ourselves against them at home in front of our home fans and members.”
Zadkovich said that the Jets would take great confidence from beating the Roar in Brisbane just over a month ago and wouldn’t let the pressure of potentially missing out on the finals bother them.
“We have a pretty good record against them, we beat them last time we played up there and it would be good to do that again down here,” he said.
“The mood (at training) has been really positive. We are in a good position at the moment. It is in our own hands.”
“Training has been tough and competitive. It has been beautiful weather so we have actually got some good sessions in and we are pretty pumped for the weekend.”
“We are in pretty good form. Even though we didn’t play very well last week we got a draw and if you look at the last eight weeks we have the best form in the league, so we are confident, we are pumped and we know we can beat them.”
The 25-year-old former Qantas Socceroo also pointed to the fact that the Jets always do well against the Roar as another psychological advantage the Newcastle side has leading into this weekend’s contest.
“Some teams you seem to play well against, for us Brisbane we always seem to do well against Brisbane,” he said.
“That could be a combination of knowing that they have some really good players and we step up or it could be pot luck but we know we have to step up this weekend.”
“It is not really easy to play Brisbane – it is a lot of hard work, but the last time we had a good game plan and we executed it well.”
“And if the boys can execute the game plan that (coach) Gary (van Egmond) gives us for this week there is no reason why we can’t beat them again.”
