Coming off a 2-1 loss to Central Coast at home in round one, Newcastle dominated the opening half an hour at CommBank Stadium with free-flowing, high-intensity attacks but were locked 1-1 at the break.

A penalty from Beqa Mikeltadze in the 19th minute, after clever work from Olivier Boumal to bring a foul from Rhys Williams, put the Jets ahead.

However, a volleyed equaliser from Bernie Ibini came in the 42^nd minute after a poor touch from Jets skipper Matt Jurman.

In a repeat of the Mariners game, the Jets paid the price when Kosta Grozos was dispossessed at the back. Tomer Hemed forced the turnover off a pass backwards to Grozos and he buried his chance in the 49th minute.

Boumal levelled just three minutes later after finishing at close range off Valentino Yuel's incisive run and ball across goal.

In the end, though, errors at the back meant Newcastle took a point when three were there for the taking.

Papas defended his team's possession-based style under the Wanderers press.

"The first thing is, you're not doing that to try to invite pressure and then concede goals from that," Papas said when asked about the Hemed goal.

"If we're going to focus on that, let's focus on every time they pressed us and we got through and we created a chance as well. And that takes bravery to do that.

"That responsibility, that lays with me, and that's what I'm asking for, and the players, they are just trying to do their best. I'm not going to make a point about talking, 'is that the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do?'

"The reality is, for me, I'm looking for consistency. Is our behaviour consistent? Is our football consistent? And I think it's extremely consistent for a team that's really been put together and is starting to play matches for the first time.

"Kosta will learn from that, and he's aware of it. And the reality is, that's his second A-League match in his career, and he's going to go on to be a very good player.

"He'll get better from that and we will keep doing what we do and try to keep building the way we want to play.

"There's going to be good periods and there's going to be periods where these kind of things happen, but that's my responsibility. I'm not going to push that onto the players."

Papas was disappointed with the effort late in the first half but said overall the game was "a step forward".

"We were fantastic early on," he said. "The first 30 minutes, some of our best football. I thought we deserved the goal, could have had another goal, and then I think we fell into a bit of a trap as well.

"We keep talking about the way we want to play, irrespective of the score. At 1-0, I think we needed to be a little more disciplined, I think we needed to maintain our tempo with the ball and I think that's something we have to learn."

"But it's such a new team, it's the first thing again for them, the first time they've been in this situation, so all these situations, the main thing is that they learn from it.

"And they are a very good team [Wanderers] and they've got some very good players as well, and they had a response.

"I think the second half was probably open for both teams. They get the goal before halftime and it gives them a bit of belief.

"I don't think we really got to grips with the game in the second half. I think we created chances, I think they had chances as well. I think we defended the box very well. I know they had a lot of shots but a lot of them were from outside the box.

"We were desperate, we moved out feet well around the box and we had our opportunities as well.

"I thought it was a good game and a step forward. We've just got to keep working hard and hopefully the players can take a bit of belief from that performance and keep building."

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