Newcastle coach Rob Stanton insists his side can still be competitive this A-League Men season despite a forgettable campaign that is threatening to drift away.
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Heading to Sunday's home clash with Macarthur FC, the Jets have won just four times this campaign and are seven points outside the finals mix heading into its back-end.
But with three home games in the next month, Stanton said his side certainly weren't throwing in the towel.
Perhaps the clash with the clash is a good chance to find some form, the fourth-ranked Bulls having played 120 minutes midweek in an AFC Cup loss to Central Coast.
"You're at that part of the season where wins are really hard for teams, if one team gets a roll on ... (they can) really progress high," Stanton said.
"You see some of the teams that sit above us stagnating ... lingering around in the same position and it's very hard to get out of it if you can't get consistency because it's so hard to get a win in the A-League.
"Our focus is to win a few more games, build that confidence, keep progressing, keep pressure on teams above us."
Newcastle have won just once in eight games, a stretch that started with a 1-1 draw against Macarthur where they conceded the latest of equalisers in the ninth minute of second-half added time.
Stanton said that contest was emblematic of his team's season.
"The game is never done ... it turned out to be a frustrating sort of evening in the end, but it was probably a really, really good performance away from home," he said.
"We've probably done that a couple of times this year, dropped some points where if we are a little bit further advanced in exposure and our experience as a group, we might have been able to deal with that a little bit better."
Mile Sterjovski's Bulls were beaten in their previous ALM encounter, with two Kosta Barbarouses goals leading Wellington to a 2-1 triumph.
They're well-entrenched in the top six and would fancy maximum points from their upcoming fixtures against the Jets (11th) and Melbourne City (seventh).
Olyroo Mark Natta and fellow youngster Nathan Grimaldi signed two-year contract extensions with Newcastle during the week, encouraging Stanton the club is on the right path.
"(They're) terrific guys that work really hard in training and they've got a really good development path for them to both go on and do bigger and better things," he said.
Australian Associated Press
