JETS straight-shooter Nikolai Topor-Stanley is not looking ahead to the A-League finals nor is he fussed about how many points Newcastle require to climb off the bottom of the ladder.
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The 34-year-old defender is focused purely on one thing: winning a game of football.
A desperate Jets take on Western United at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
The last time the home side tasted success was a 2-0 defeat over Western Sydney Wanderers at Turton Road on November 30.
Since then, they have lost seven, including the past four straight, and had one draw to sink to the foot of the table, 11 points outside of top six.
Asked if the play-offs were out of reach, despite 12 games remaining, a blunt Topor-Stanley replied: "We haven't got the luxury to be thinking about finals football. We need to be winning and winning now. Winning a game. That has to be it ... unfortunately that is where we are at."
The Jets produced their best performance off the season in a 2-1 away loss to Wellington last round. The visitors dominated every statistic bar the scoreboard.
"Some people say teams forget how to win," Topor-Stanley said. "I feel like it has been a bit of a story of our season. We have performed admirably but it hasn't been good enough come results.
"We have games to win and we haven't won one in a while. That is what I am focusing on.
"You have to work hard on the training paddock, you have to put the work in the bank to be ready to perform on the weekend. I feel like we have done that this week, and we will see what that brings tomorrow."
