FORMER Sunderland striker and Central Coast Mariners star Roy O’Donovan criticised the Jets for being negative and labelled their football ugly.
Assistant coach John Hutchinson taunted the Jets about the wooden spoon, and coach Tony Walmsley said he wants to “own Hunter Stadium”.
Normally it would be red rag to a bull. The Jets, however, are determined for their football to do the talking when they take on their arch rivals in the F3 derby on Saturday night.
“Reading the media, they have taken a different approach, undermining us,” Jets keeper Mark Birighitti said. “That’s not us.
“We want to do our talking on the football pitch. It would be great to get three points. That would be a statement on who is in charge of the Hunter region.”
The Jets haven’t taken three points from the derby since a 2-1 triumph in 2012.
“The boys are prepared for it and really looking forward to it,” Birighitti said.
“We did a video session on them on Friday.
“There is definitely areas in their game that we can exploit and really hurt them.
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“They are there for the taking.”
The Jets are third on nine points, five places and five points above the Mariners.
“At the start of the season we set out some goals which were broken into six-week cycles,” the keeper said.
“If we can get a win on the weekend, we will have achieved that [points] goal.
“We want to win all our home games.
“We haven’t won the past two and that is just not good enough for a club moving forward.”
The Jets led Western Sydney 1-0 with 15 minutes remaining on their home turf last round before conceding two late goals.
“Going 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go, it was disappointing that we couldn’t hold out,” Birighitti said.
“Basic individual errors, lapses in concentration, goal conceded in the last 5-10 minutes . . . you learn from your mistakes.”
O’Donovan scored with a header at the near post to snatch the Mariners a 1-all draw against Wellington Phoenix last round and take his tally to three in five games.
“Attacking-wise they have a lot of weapons,” Birighitti said. “In saying that, they leave a lot of space behind and their back four can be a little bit vulnerable at times.
“If we can win the second ball in midfield and play through the lines, we have players good enough to hurt them.”
Birighitti requires more dental work after dislodging five teeth and needing 48 stitches after being kicked in the face by Sydney striker Shane Smeltz a month ago.
“I think I get my mouthguard next week, so I’ll be wearing a mouthguard for the rest of the season. We’ll take it from there,” he said.
Birighitti is lining up for his third game since the injury.
“People were saying, ‘how are you going to recover from it mentally?’ For me, mentally, it’s not an issue,” he said.
source:theherald.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 