Jets co-captain Gema Simon has labelled Newcastle's away clash with Perth on Saturday night as a "must-win".
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The Jets have one point from three outings while Perth have lost both of their games and will be equally keen to take maximum points in the round-four encounter at Dorrien Gardens.
It will be no easy task for Newcastle, who have never beaten Glory on their home turf. In 10 encounters in Perth since the W-League began, the Jets have drawn five and lost five there.
"A win is very important," Simon said. "We have to win this weekend if we want to keep our finals hopes alive.
"We don't want to look too far ahead at this point but it's definitely getting to the point where we need to start winning games and if we don't win this weekend then we're going to make it quite hard for ourselves."
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Newcastle opened the season with a 1-1 draw against Melbourne City at No.2 Sportsground before losing 1-0 to Western Sydney away then succumbing 3-2 to Canberra at McDonald Jones Stadium last weekend.
After the Perth game, the Jets return to Newcastle to host defending champions Sydney before a no-points bye in round six.
"I looked at the ladder for the first time a couple of days ago and there is a little bit of a gap now between the teams outside the top four and the top four, so it's definitely important we get the win this weekend and then build from there," Simon said.
"Once we get our first win I think we'll settle a little bit more and we'll be able to keep the ball a bit better. You definitely want confidence going into playing teams like Sydney FC."
Newcastle's passing accuracy is the worst of the league's nine teams at 57.6 per cent after three rounds. In comparison, City's is 82.8 per cent, Western Sydney's 79, Sydney 75.8 and Canberra 73.9. Those four sides occupy the top-four positions after three rounds.
"We definitely need to keep the ball better," Simon said. "I think that will help us going forward. I think [against Canberra] we improved on our performance the weekend before, so as long as we keep heading in the right direction we should be able to get a win this weekend ... We just need to settle more and be more confident.
"I have one hundred per cent confidence in the group that we can keep the ball and we showed that in the first game against City. We're definitely creating things once we can put three or four passes together, so I think we need to look at where we did well and try to recreate those a little bit more."
Perth lost 2-0 to Canberra on the road in round one then 3-1 to Sydney at home last weekend. They have lost superstar Sam Kerr this season but Simon remained wary of a team also desperate for points.
"Every team has shown this season that they're going to be difficult to beat and Perth are no different," she said. "It's tough to beat any side away and I think it will be the same once we get over there."
The Jets travel to Perth on Friday. Kick-off on Saturday night is 10.15pm AEDT.