ROY O'Donovan is confident the Jets have learned from their first-up defeat to Wanderers and won't fall for their "rope a dope" tactics again.
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The Jets travel south to tackle Western Sydney at Bankwest Stadium on Friday with the pain of a 2-1 loss at home to Wanderers in round two still stinging.
Newcastle controlled the game for large periods but paid the price for two lapses - former Socceroo James Troisi found Ziggy Gordon with and corner and former Premier League star Simon Cox teed up Tate Russell for a second.
"The difference between them and us that night, was that their international players had that little bit of quality and hurt us when they needed to," O'Donovan said. "They didn't attack us all night long, but when they did, they made it count.
"They used a Muhammad Ali tactic - we were a bit of a dope on a rope. We pushed and pushed and pushed and they sucker punched us a couple of times.
"We need to be mindful of that going down there, be resolute and clinical like we were against Wellington."
The Jets head to Parramatta fresh from a breakthrough 2-1 win over Wellington - a win O'Donovan's hopes will end the negativity circling about the club.
"We have actually been playing some decent football and we needed to get three points to show people that we are still here, still fighting," he said.
"As much as we believe you have to get other people to believe. Not everybody is an expert on football. Some of us are sick of hearing negative stories come out about the club - talk about the takeover or what is happening with the coach... As I have said numerous times, we have plenty in our armoury to upset teams and get results. I don't see anything different against Wanderers."
It is the Jets' fourth game in 12 days and they will only have two sessions to prepare after being given Monday and Tuesday off training.
"Besides myself, Boogs and Nikolai, everybody else is a young kid,"O'Donovan said. "They could play every day of the week. I don't see it being a problem. I'd rather play games then train."
The match will be the second encounter against Wanderers coach Carl Robinson and Bernie Ibini, who departed the Jets in controversial circumstances.
"Whether it is Carl or playing against Melbourne Victory, there should be a little bit of an edge to the game," O'Donovan said. "We want to win. We hate them for that 90 minutes. We want to make Carl think he made a wrong decision at the end of 90 minutes. To do that we have play some good football."
Since beating the Jets, the Wanderers have drawn with Sydney 1-all and beaten the Mariners 1-0.
However, just one goal has been scored by their forwards - Cox, Nicolai Muller, Bernie Ibini and Kwame Yeboah.
It's a stat that doesn't sit well with Cox.
"Listen, as a striker you're paid to score goals and when that's not happening ultimately criticism is going to come your way and that's fine," he said. "We're paid to do a job and at the minute we're not really doing that job."
"But ultimately we're the forefront of the team, we're the focal point and we're not simply goal getters, we're there for everybody else to bring everybody else into play and do a job for the team.
"If that's with assists or some people might not see the runs that we make to create space for somebody else.
"The manager and his staff see that and as long as he's happy we're happy and we can continue in that vein."
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