15/16 HAL Round 01 | Wellington Phoenix vs Newcastle Jets | Sunday 12/10/15 ko 500pm

[Jeterpool]

A-League 15/16 Round 1 Preview - Wellington Phoenix v Newcastle Jets

FIXTURE FACTS

Overall – 25 matches between the two teams.
Jets Wins - 6, Phoenix Wins - 15, Drawn - 4

In Newcastle – 11 matches.
Jets Wins - 4, Phoenix Wins - 6, Drawn - 1
In New Zealand - 14
Jets Wins - 2, Phoenix Wins - 9, Drawn - 3

Average Home A-League Crowd – 10222
Average Away A-League Crowd - 9156

Goals in Fixture
Jets – 28, Phoenix - 50
In New Zealand -
Jets – 10, Phoenix - 31

1st Goals in Fixture
Jets – 9, Phoenix - 15

Cards in Fixture
Jets - 48 (43 yellow, 5 red), Phoenix 42 (39 yellow, 3 red)

Recent Form (FFA Cup & A-League)
Jets - L (0 points from last 0)
Phoenix - WL (0 points from last 0)

Leading Scorers
Jets - N/A (N/A)
Phoenix – N/A (N/A)

Last Result -
Jets 2 (Bonevacia 12'o.g., Neville 18') – Phoenix 2 (Krishna 68', Hicks 90+4’) at Hutt Recreational Park, A-League, Round 18, 22/02/2015 .

Starting line-ups from Last Meeting in Season 10 Round 18

Newcastle Jets	Wellington Phoenix
Ben Kennedy	Glen Moss
Scott Neville	Manny Muscat
Taylor Regan	Michael Boxall
Andrew Hoole	Ben Sigmund
Sam Gallagher	Andrew Durante
Daniel Mullen	Roly Bonevacia
Ben Kantarovski	Alex Gorrin
Zenon Caravella	Nathan Burns
Jacob Pepper	Michael McGlinchey
Ki-Je Lee	Albert Riera
Edson Montano	Roy Krishna

FIXTURE RECORDS

Biggest Win

Jets 5 (Heskey 36’, Griffiths 46’, Taggart 57’, Taggart 77’, Bridges 90+3’) – Phoenix 0 at Hunter Stadium, Round 24, 22/03/2014.

Heaviest Defeat

Jets 0 – Phoenix 4 (Brown 18’, Rojas 31’, Greenacre 41’, Macallister 88’), Round 19, Season 6 at Westpac Stadium, 18/12/2010.

Leading Scorers in fixture –

Jets - Joel Griffiths (4)
Phoenix - Shane Smeltz (6)

2015/16 SEASON STATISTICS

Number	Name	Appearances	Starts	Substitute Appearances	Subbed off	Minutes Played	Goals	Assists	Yellow Cards	Second Yellows	Straight	Total
1	Mark Birighitti	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Daniel Mullen	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Jason Hoffman	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Nigel Boogaard	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Ben Kantarovski	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Cameron Watson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Enver Alivodic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Mateo Poljak	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Milos Trifunovic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	Leonardo Vitor Santiago	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	Labinot Haliti	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Andy Brennan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	Ki-Je Lee	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	Mitch Cooper	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	Themba Muata-Marlow	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Lachlan Jackson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17	Radovan Pavicevic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	Ben Kennedy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
23	David Carney	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
24	Braedyn Crowley	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
25	Brandon Lundy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

COACHING

Coaches Head to Head – 0 matches
Scott Miller - 0 wins, Ernie Merrick - 0 wins, 0 drawn

Newcastle Jets A-League Coaching Records –

• Phil Stubbins - 3 matches (0 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses = 0% win ratio)
• Gary Van Egmond – 12 matches (3 wins, 3 drawn and 6 losses = 25% win ratio)
• Richard Money - No matches
• Branko Culina – 7 matches (2 wins, 0 drawn, 5 losses = 29% win ratio)
• Nick Theodorakopoulos - No Matches
• Craig Deans -1 Match (0 win, 0 drawn, 1 loss = 0% win ratio)
• Clayton Zane – 2 matches (1 wins, 0 drawn, 1 loss = 50% win ratio)

Wellington Phoenix Coach Record – Ernie Merrick 37% win ratio (9 wins, 6 drawn, 9 losses)

PLAYER FOCUS
This week we take a look at the player who has returned to the Jets in the off-season and scored his first and second A-League goals against the Phoenix in the one match.

• Jason Hoffman has made 4 appearances against Wellington Phoenix which has consisted of 2 starts and 2 appearances as a substitute. He has been substituted 0 times. He has played on the field for 227 minutes.
• He has captained the side 0 times and scored 0 penalties.
• He has scored 2 goals and provided 0 assists. He has received 0 yellow and 0 red cards. He scored for the Jets once every 692 minutes.
• Jason Hoffman has a Win-Draw-Loss record against Wellington Phoenix of 2-0-2.

The opposition player is a former Jet from the Grand Final winning team, who also the Phoenix captain:

• Andrew Durante has made 19 appearances for Wellington Phoenix which has consisted of 19 starts and 0 appearances as a substitute. He has been substituted 0 times. He has played on the field for 1740 minutes.
• He has captained the side 18 times and scored 0 penalties.
• He has scored 1 goals and provided 0 assists. He has received 3 yellow and 0 red cards. He scored for the Opposition once every 1740 minutes.
• Andrew Durante has a Win-Draw-Loss record for Wellington Phoenix against the Jets of 11-4-4.

KEY FACTS:

Goals

• Both teams are without their leading scorers from last year - Edson Montano and Nathan Burns

Players

• The Jets have kept only 2 clean sheets in Wellington.
• However, Glen Moss has kept only 3 clean sheets in 18 appearances against the Jets.

Discipline

• All red cards (8) shown in this fixture have been given at Westpac Stadium.

Newcastle Jets

• The Jets haven't won the first match of a season in the last 3 years.
• Their W-D-L record on the opening day is 2-3-4.
• This is the 3rd year in a row the Jets have been the visiting team in Round 1
• Nigel Boogaard will become the 21st captain of the club (assuming he is the captain)
• The Jets have lost only once away from home to Wellington in the last 3 seasons (1 win, 3 draws, 1 loss)

Wellington Phoenix

• Wellington has scored 8 goals in the last 15 minutes of home matches agaisnt the Jets. That's 26% of their goals in this fixture.
• Ernie Merrick has lost against the Jets only once during his time as Wellington coach.
• When Wellington has scored first (15 occasions), the Jets have never won and only come back to draw twice.
• Wellington have only won their first match of the season once in 8 seasons and have lost their first match in the last two seasons.

[Jeterpool]

PREDICTION:

The Jets enter the new season with the biggest upheaval off the field the club has seen in their 10 years. The club have welcomed 10 new members to the playing group with players such as Trifunovic and Leonardo an unknown quantity to most fans.

The team will face a tough test from the visit to Wellington, who themselves have a relatively quiet off season in first team recruitment. Their biggest loss is the departure of leading scorer Nathan Burns - a similar situation the Jets find themselves in with the departure of Edson Montano.

However, it can be argued the stigma of Wellington being an unhappy hunting ground for the Jets is turning. Having previously gone 8 matches without a win in Wellington, the Jets have lost only once in the last 5 games. The key battle will be the focus on defence and mental strength, attributes new coach Scott Miller has identified as fundamental for his teams, late in the match. More than half of goals (30) conceded last year were in the last third of a match, 17 in the last 15 minutes. This is an area of strength of Wellington at home. If the team's only competitive hit-out so far against Perth in the FFA cup is anything to go by, the hunger, desire and speed of ball movement has increased from last year's showings.

History is also not on the side of new coach Scott Miller. The Jets have won only twice on the first day of the season, both of which were at home, while only two new Jets coach have won their first A-League match - Gary Van Egmond and Branko Culina. However, both those coaches first wins came against New Zealand teams (Knights and Phoenix) and one of the Jets two first round wins were also against the Phoenix on a day when Jason Hoffman scored twice.

With expectations low after 5 years of little success and having been written off by most pundits, the Jets should enter the match with little pressure. But after a successful period off the field with the Jets being removed of Nathan Tinkler, gaining new sponsorship and a renewed focus on engaging the community, the time has now come to deliver on the park. Newcastle supporters have mostly stuck by the club and now is the time to repay their faith.

1-1 Draw

[GazFish35]

Put some thought into things before you post next time.

[Jeterpool]

Put some thought into things before you post next time.

Huh? What do you mean?

[BodyNovo]

Huh? What do you mean?

[Wilso8948]

internet and sarcasm.. Never been friends

[Jeterpool]

Used to Gaz being the social conscience of the forum. Needed more

[The Postman]

Would imagine that Milos would start ahead of Haliti or even Leonardo eventually, but fitness wise he probably isn't ready yet.

Kanta or Watson is another toss up, everyone is pretty well secure with their starting spot though.

GK - Birighitti
RB - Hoffman
CB - Mullen
CB - Boogaard
LB - Ki Je
CM - Poljak
CM - Watson
RAM - Carney
CAM - Leonardo
LAM - Alivodic
ST - Haliti

BK
Marlow
Kanta
Cooper
Milos

[Jeterpool]

Would imagine that Milos would start ahead of Haliti or even Leonardo eventually, but fitness wise he probably isn't ready yet.

Kanta or Watson is another toss up, everyone is pretty well secure with their starting spot though.

GK - Birighitti
RB - Hoffman
CB - Mullen
CB - Boogaard
LB - Ki Je
CM - Poljak
CM - Watson
RAM - Carney
CAM - Leonardo
LAM - Alivodic
ST - Haliti

BK
Marlow
Kanta
Cooper
Milos

I'm not sure Milos will get his clearance through. I agree with your starting line up but would swap Marlow with Jackson and Milos with Pavicevic

[MFKS]

Would imagine that Milos would start ahead of Haliti or even Leonardo eventually, but fitness wise he probably isn't ready yet.

Kanta or Watson is another toss up, everyone is pretty well secure with their starting spot though.

GK - Birighitti
RB - Hoffman
CB - Mullen
CB - Boogaard
LB - Ki Je
CM - Poljak
CM - Watson
RAM - Carney
CAM - Leonardo
LAM - Alivodic
ST - Haliti

BK
Marlow
Kanta
Cooper
Milos

**** is that our best side???

Gonna be a long season once injuries/suspensions kick in if these blokes are the best we have at our disposal.

[Thomas477]

To me, the fact that Milos is having issues getting a visa is a disgrace. Why the **** do we have a club in a country where not all of our players can potentially play? It's a joke.

[Jeterpool]

To me, the fact that Milos is having issues getting a visa is a disgrace. Why the **** do we have a club in a country where not all of our players can potentially play? It's a joke.

It's not visa issues getting in here, is it? It's visa issues getting into NZ I thought.

[PC14]

It's not visa issues getting in here, is? It's visa issues getting into NZ I thought.

That's what I understood.

[belchardo]

can't believe we have a "braedyn" in the team.

[MFKS]

It's not visa issues getting in here, is it? It's visa issues getting into NZ I thought.

Generally speaking visas for Australia and NZ are pretty much same same.

If you can get one for Australia you get one for NZ just as easily.


What price someone at Jets HQ put the Kiwi application in late???

[Thomas477]

It's not visa issues getting in here, is it? It's visa issues getting into NZ I thought.

Yeah, meant why should Aus clubs sign players and have all paperwork signed off for them to play in that country, then not be able to get them to play 1 club coz of visa issues.

[The Dunster]

Generally speaking visas for Australia and NZ are pretty much same same.

If you can get one for Australia you get one for NZ just as easily.


What price someone at Jets HQ put the Kiwi application in late???

Yep. It's happened before with respect to a newly signed Jet not being eligible to play in NZ. Can't remember who it was though.

[belchardo]

montano?

[The Dunster]

montano?

I think so.

[borat]

Have heard very little about the performances of Leonardo so far. With the mid week Herald article with Miller talking up Mitch Cooper, can see Cooper in the starting team and Leonardo on the bench