THE Newcastle Jets will explore signing a striker on loan from a rival A-League club during the transfer window in a bid to end the club's goal-scoring woes.
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A hamstring injury to Abdiel Arroyo, which will sideline the Panamanian for up to two months, has further depleted the Jets' already thin attacking stocks.
Former Ireland international Wes Hoolahan (ankle) is at least a month away from a return. Kaine Sheppard played 10 minutes in the 2-1 loss to Adelaide on Sunday in his first game back from a three-month lay-off and was clearly underdone.
The Jets created enough gilt-edge chances against Adelaide to win three games, but lacked a cutting edge.
It has been the story of their campaign, which has yielded eight goals in seven games and incredibly only four from open play.
"We have done more than enough to wins games but we just don't finish things off," a frustrated Merrick said after the Jets fired 31 shots to Adelaide's 13 at Coopers Stadium on Sunday night.
"To be perfectly honest we just need a goal-scorer, a finisher during open play."
McKinna said the Jets have funds, which had been set aside for a possible return by Joey Champness, and would look at all options in January.
"It is about getting somebody who can come in and be up to the level," McKinna said.
"Maybe, we will look at a loan player - a young player from another club. We will look at that and present who is available to Ernie. There will be a few but they won't be household names. They will be fringe players but they have to be better than we have available in the youth team."
The A-League opened the door last season for clubs to loan players from their rivals.
Danny De Silva spent the season at Sydney FC before returning to the Mariners this campaign.
"You never know, there might be someone in the January window who pops up," Merrrick said.
"We do a lot of work on the front third, on our passing and creating goal-scoring opportunities. The boys are all doing that well. It's just the final touch. We are doing a lot of things right. It's seven games for us into 26 rounds and then finals. We are on track to be a very good team but we need to start finishing in open play and scoring goals."
Champness, who gave up a two-year contract extension to pursue a rap career in the US, has been back in Australia but at this point is still focused on music.
Teenager Angus Thurgate has scored two goals in three games as a makeshift striker and along with Nick Fitzgerald, Dimi Petratos and Hoffman had a raft of chances against the Reds.
Thurgate had a shot blocked on the line, Fitzgerald hit the woodwork as did Steven Ugarkovic.
"We have players in the right position, we get shots off, sometimes the opposition keeper wins man of the match ... we are doing a lot of things right."
Adelaide coach Gertjan Verbeek, though happy with the result, said the Reds had "stolen" three points.
Former Socceroo James Troisi produced a flash of brilliance to score the decisive goal with seven minutes.
"James Troisi popped up at the right time," Merrick said.
"That is the difference. That has been the difference in five games for us. We have won two, drawn two and lost three.
"We hit the bar twice... it was one of those games but we seem to keep doing it."
