Craig Deans has made just one change to the squad to take on Wellington in Wollongong tomorrow night.
New signing Luka Pršo comes into the squad with Ali Abbas withdrawn due to a hamstring complaint.
The Jets played the Phoenix in a pre-season friendly a month ago at McDonald Jones Stadium.
“We had a good look at that game and we scored some good goals in that game,” Deans said.
“We also conceded some poor goals that game and make sure we understand what’s coming from the Wellington point of view.”
However Deans said the team was more focused on the things they could control and making sure their mental approach to the game was far more important.
“In a situation like this when you’ve lost the opening four games it’s easy for some people to shut up shop, but I know we don’t have players here that would do that.” he said.
“We just need stay positive and turn the luck around and turn the results around and hopefully we can do that on Sunday.”
Pršo trained well today and is some chance of making his debut, but Deans is weary of throwing he youngster in the deep end.
“He jumped out of a hotel on Wednesday coming from -2 in Europe and he walked into an Australian summer for his first training yesterday and the humidity was 90%.”
“He’s trained again today and looked alot better and he will travel down to Wollongong with us but I’m not sure how much time he will get, it just depends on how he pulls up.”
Sunday 24 January
Wellington Phoenix v Newcastle Jets
WIN Stadium, Wollongong
Kick-Off: 6:05pm
Referee: Alex King
Assistant Referee 1: Lance Greenshields
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Powers
Fourth Official: Stephen Lucas
VAR: Kris Griffiths-Jones
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on FOX SPORTS 505 from 6:00pm (AEDT), Sky Sport 7 (New Zealand), Kayo Sports (www.kayosports.com.au) and MyFootball Live App, Live Fast and Data Free for Telstra mobile customers
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #WELvNEW
To purchase tickets visit www.a-league.com.au/tickets
Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Stefan MARINOVIC (gk), 2.Liam McGING, 3.Luke DEVERE, 4.Te Atawhai HUDSON-WIHONGI, 5.James MCGARRY, 6.Tim PAYNE, 8.Cameron DEVLIN, 9.David BALL, 10.Ulises DAVILA, 11.Jaushua SOTIRIO, 12.Matthew RIDENTON, 15.Mirza MURATOVIC, 16.Louis FENTON, 17.Tomer HEMED, 18.Ben WAINE, 19.Sam SUTTON, 20.Oliver SAIL, 21.Joshua LAWS, 23.Clayton LEWIS
**1-3 to be omitted**
Ins: 4.Te Atawhai HUDSON-WIHONGI (promoted), 19.Sam SUTTON (promoted)
Outs: 14.Alex RUFER (Suspended – 1 Match)
Unavailable: 7.Reno PISCOPO (calf – 1 week)
Newcastle Jets squad: 1.Lewis ITALIANO (gk), 2. Johnny KOURTROUMBIS, 3.Jason HOFFMAN, 4.Nigel BOOGAARD (c), 6.Steven UGARKOVIC, 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 11.Ramy NAJJARINE , 13.Maki PETRATOS,15.Tete YENGI, 18.Jack ARMSON, 17.Valentino YUEL, 19.Kosta PETRATOS, 21. Luca PRŠO, 23.Jack DUNCAN (gk), 24.Connor O’TOOLE, 25.Jack SIMMONS, 27.Lucas MAURAGIS, 28.Blake ARCHBOLD , 32.Angus THURGATE, 44.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY
**2-4 to be omitted**
Ins: 21.Luca PRŠO (new signing), 18.Jack ARMSON (promoted), 28.Blake ARCHBOLD (promoted)
Outs: 14.Ali ABBAS (hamstring – 1 week)
Unavailable: 5. Ben KANTAROVKSI (calf – 2 weeks), 22. Lachlan JACKSON (ankle – 3 weeks)
