ERNIE Merrick has never doubted the fight in the Newcastle Jets.
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But the experienced coach knows that his under-manned squad is going to have to produced more than spirit to kick-start their campaign.
The Jets are away to heavyweights Melbourne Victory on Sunday, followed by consecutive games against top two Sydney FC (home) and Melbourne City (away) before a trip across the Tasman to battle Wellington, who are unbeaten in seven games.
They currently sit in last spot on nine points from nine games.
And unless they can carve out some positive results, their campaign could be as good as over.
"I think we will do well in the next three or four weeks and we need to do well," Merrick said. "We need to start taking three points and taking our chances."
Merrick, despite giving up a late goal to draw 1-all with Brisbane, was encouraged by the performance.
"It could have been better, don't get me wrong," he said. "We could have won the game, but I was happy with the performance, especially after two average performances against Melbourne City (4-0) and Perth Glory (6-2). The boys showed they can fight and we were very unlucky with the two chances at the end. Their goal keeper pulled off two terrific saves - the header and the one-on-one. We are disappointed we didn't take three points but the performance was impressive."
With the Jets up 1-0, Angus Thurgate missed a golden opportunity to seal the win in the 80th minute when put through on goal but couldn't beat Jamie Young.
Then, in injury time, with the scores level, produced a contender for save of the year to parry away a Ben Kantarovski header.
"Gus is still learning that role as a number nine," Merrick said. "To me he is getting better every week. We have done some work on it (one-on-one situations). If the keeper stays, you have to take the shot early. If the keeper comes out, you have to step to the side, you don't have to beat the keeper, just create an opening to slide in the ball. Angus will learn for the next time. Hopefully he keeps getting one-on-ones."
Merrick said the Jets strikers could take a leaf out of Roar match-turner Bradden Inman, who scored a stunning goal from edge of the box.
"Inman turned and hit the ball and it was a goal. It was one of those strikes and we need to do that more often in and around the box," he said.
Merrick will "reward good performances" and stick with the same XI for Victory, who will be without skipper goal-scorer Ola Toivonen, who picked up his fifth yellow card for the campaign in the derby win before the bye.
Panamanian striker Abdiel Arroyo (hamstring) has resumed running and is nearing a return.
"Arroyo ran six kilometres last training session and is working really hard," the coach said. "It's hard to put a time frame on that type of injury because it was pretty severe. He is ahead of time. The doctor thought it might be an eight week injury, it looks more like six or seven weeks."
