Gary van Egmond believes the Jets still have room for improvement despite their 6-0 win over the NBN State League Select.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets head coach Gary van Egmond believes the Jets still have room for improvement despite their 6-0 win over the NBN State League Select at Darling Street Oval Wednesday night.
The Jets have scored 18 goals in their three pre-season trial matches so far, but van Egmond insists they can still become more clinical in attacking areas of the pitch.
“We still have to get better in the front third with our combination play,” he said.
“We sometimes take the wrong option, someone takes too many touches, we make the wrong run, we-re still not as fluent as we-d like.
“We need to work on those areas, but in general in regards to controlling the game and our transition we-re a lot better.
“We just have to keep on working hard, keeping the same mentality up until the beginning of the season and we-ll see how we go.”
Even though they found the back of the net on six occasions, the Jets could have scored more had their finishing been more precise.
Van Egmond said there were moments during Wednesday night-s victory that pleased him, but they weren-t quite frequent enough.
“I-d like to see it a little bit more consistently. It should be a case where the boys, with their fitness can help themselves to create opportunities,” he explained.
“I-d also like to see them, not just through fitness, but through technique, positioning and skill creating opportunities as well.”
Van Egmond said he was pleased with the performance of left-back Craig Goodwin who bagged a hat-trick inside the first 15 minutes of the contest.
“A hat-trick from left-back doesn-t happen too often, but they were excellent strikes,” van Egmond said.
“When you have people all over the ground who can score goals, it makes it more difficult for the opposition.”
