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Training ground bust-up to blame for Birighitti's horror night
Newcastle coach Clayton Zane has conceded the training ground fight with teammate Taylor Regan may have had a bigger effect on goal-keeper Mark Birighitti than the Jets coaching staff first thought as the 22-year-old was at fault for two of the three goals the Mariners scored in their 3-1 F3 Derby triumph on Saturday evening.
Birighitti was caught napping when Mariners defender Eddy Bosnar drilled a free-kick home from just inside the Jets half after just 41 seconds before the former Adelaide United player fumbled a Matt Simon attempt which offered up the third goal to Glen Trifiro two minutes from time at Central Coast Stadium.
Birighitti and Regan, who didn’t feature on Saturday evening, came to blows at Jets training on Monday and the spat was clearly still on the young goalkeeper's mind.
“It’s been a very big week if you add the two goals on top of the incident’ conceded Zane.
“You never know how it is going to affect an individual and maybe it did have a bigger effect on him than we thought.
“If I had of thought that was the case we would have looked to see how we could manage that but for both parties involved that sort of blew over pretty quickly.
Despite the fact the incident drew blood Zane did try to downplay the fight.
“At the time the incident was made into a little bit of a headline by the media because it was a slower news week.
“There was no rumblings at training, the boys got over it pretty quick.
After falling behind in the first minute to Bosnar’s long-range strike Zane, 36, didn’t lambast the keeper at the break.
“It’s more about using his experience to motivate the others, I don’t think it was a time to single anyone out.
“The kid has fallen into a bit of hole let’s help him get out of it.
“Our reaction after going 2-0 down was very good”
Zane continued.
“He knows the score it’s been a very very toucgh week for the boy and pointing fingers at anyone is not going to help anyone.
”I actually walked off and it was quite refreshing to hear people in the change room talk about he performance for 75 minutes of that match.
“We need to be a 90 minute team leading into the finals and we have got very short time to get back to winning ways.”
Zane is confident the experience of the week will make Birighitti a better player in the long run.
“Biri’s knows the score, that’s part of his development, the timing wasn’t great but I’m sure the boys will lift him and make sure that he is ready to go tomorrow.
Been a pretty tough week for the fans that actually spent money to watch that shit as well . **** this club shits me. They either wrap the players in cotton wool or they publically humiliate them. Why not just drop him for a week. Give BK a run and if BK does well then Birra can wait for another shot like BK was made to.