Jets co-captain Cassidy Davis believes Newcastle can keep alive their season with an historic win over unbeaten league leaders Melbourne City on Saturday.
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The Jets will put everything on the line at AAMI Park this afternoon, needing victory to remain a chance of finals football.
While City hold a three-point buffer over the league at the top of the competition standings on 22 points, Newcastle are nine points outside the top four on four points with five games to play.
The Jets came from behind to draw 1-1 with City in round one and had the competition heavyweights on the back foot as they finished the stronger of the two.
Newcastle remain the only side to take points off City this season but must up the ante this weekend to cause an upset.
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"That performance gave us a lot of confidence but that was round one and we're at round 10 now, so they've had many games together and they're going to be harder than the first round," Davis said.
"But we're obviously improved as well. We haven't got as many results as we would have wanted, only the one win, so it's something that we are looking forward to. We need to win four out of our last five games to be safe, so it's a massive game for us. We need to go out there and know our jobs, know our roles and work as a group. When we do that, we look good.
"More importantly, we just need to have a go because I think if you have a go against a team like City, you can hopefully scare them a little bit, like we did first round."
The match is the first assignment for Jets caretaker coach Ash Wilson. The former national league player has been the Jets assistant coach for the past five seasons and has stepped up to replace head coach Craig Deans on an interim basis while he looks after the club's A-League side.
"We've had a really solid week of training," Wilson said. "They're all well aware of the reality of their circumstances and the ball is in their court.
"I think our mentality is one of our strong points. They have to bring that out this weekend and I've got every confidence they will."
The Jets have never beaten City, who host Newcastle after a 4-0 demolition of Canberra, and Wilson said an historic win over the star-studded side would mean more than just three competition points.
"For us it will just reconfirm the belief we have in ourselves about what kind of team we can be," she said.
"Then it will keep the girls working and focused towards those next couple of games because they're still in it and they're still fighting and they know exactly what this game could do - it could turn the whole season around for them."
Wilson has taken an unchanged squad to Melbourne from Newcastle's 2-1 loss against Victory in their last outing two weeks ago.
The match is at 5pm.
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