SKIPPER Nigel Boogaard is confident the Jets will rise to the challenge of beating defending champions Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval on Friday night to kick-start their season.
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After a 1-all draw against the Mariners in Gosford and a 2-1 loss at home to Adelaide, Newcastle are still searching for their first win of the 2019-20 campaign.
But Boogaard believes the Jets play their best against high-profile teams and is comfortable that their fortunes are about to change.
"For me, that's the exciting part about football, when you come up against teams that are supposed to be stronger or better, or with individual players that are better," Boogaard said.
"For me, that's a challenge. That's when you should be able to step up to the mark.
"In the past, we've usually had a better record against the teams that are stronger or higher on the table, which is a bit frustrating.
"But that's the way it is, and it's going to be a great challenge for us."
Boogaard added that beating Sydney would be just the starting point for Newcastle.
"Where we're at in the season, it's only early but, yes, for us it's definitely about getting results," he said. "But it's also about we're moving forward in the areas to make sure we don't go down to beat Sydney off a bit of a fluke, and the next week we fall in a heap again.
"It's about building and keeping what we're doing steadily increasing in all those areas, and making sure we're sustainable for the rest of the year."
Newcastle should probably have more to show from their first two games than a lone competition point, especially after leading Adelaide 1-0 at half-time last weekend.
But Boogaard said coach Ernie Merrick had reassured his troops that it was a matter of "refining" the processes that they had worked on throughout the pre-season.
"Overall we're not that far off, but there are areas to improve in ... the good thing is at this points in the season, a lot of things that are in place, we're doing well, we've improved on," Boogaard said.
"It's just those minor details, which at the end of the day are going to get us results, which we need to fix."
It will be the Jets' first A-League game at Leichhardt but Boogaard said in trial games there the pitch had always been "immaculate" and he expected the atmosphere to be "buzzing".
