Jets coach Gary van Egmond looking for players to fill out ALW roster

The Jets completed a tough eight-day period in which they played three games by succumbing 4-0 to Perth in Perth on Sunday night.

They conceded two goals in each half and the result looks to have extinguished any hopes of a possible late-season revival, leaving Newcastle second-last with just 10 points after 13 games.

They are 12 points adrift of the top four with five matches remaining and have now conceded a league-worst 35 goals, 12 more than any other side.

While making the top four seems an extremely unlikely prospect, Newcastle could definitely overhaul some of the teams ahead of them with a good run.

The Jets, who looked to have turned their season around with an impressive 2-0 win over league leaders Western United in Ballarat last Wednesday, did not play badly against Perth.

In fact, they had nearly twice as many shots as their counterparts but could not convert. They conceded a penalty against the run of play around the 15-minute mark and found themselves trailing 1-0 as a result.

"That sort of killed our momentum, and we were doing some good things," van Egmond, who has replaced Ash Wilson as Jets coach, said post-match on Sunday night.

"We just lacked some penetration and some decision-making and possibly some execution at times ... So that's where we need to get better.

"And even the game against Western United, where I thought we were the better team, we also suffered from that as well, so that's a fair focus for us over these next couple of weeks."

There are no games this weekend due to the international window. The Jets' next outing is when they host Western United at No.2 Sportsground on February 26.

"This week needs to be a decent week," van Egmond said.

"We'll be back in on Tuesday. This week we need to work, and then start to work on some principles of play of what we're looking to do both with and without the ball.

"Then we'll taper off for the following week when we look to play Western United."

The Perth match was the last for American attacking player Sarah Griffith, who was on loan to Newcastle from Chicago Red Stars and is returning to the United States for National Women's Soccer League pre-season.

It leaves the Jets with 16 contracted players plus a handful of scholarship players.

Van Egmond will look to replace Griffith and, without going into detail, said there were also "a number of injury replacements coming up".

"We need to get more depth and that's another thing we'll be looking at in the next couple of weeks as well," van Egmond said.

"At this moment, Lara Gooch is someone that we can look to elevate from a scholarship perspective ... we're also looking at other players outside of Newcastle to see who we can possibly bring in as well.

"We'll have a number of injury replacements coming up with a number of girls who will be out for the rest of the year. There's a rule that there needs to be 17 full contracts at all times, so we'll lose a number of those with players who depart or won't see out the rest of the season so we have to fill those positions."

Fullback Tessa Tamplin, who returned to the Jets this campaign after playing in Europe, has managed just five appearances due to an ongoing leg issue.

Meanwhile, Jets Academy defender Zoe Karipidis is in Young Matildas camp in Melbourne this week as part of a 27-player squad.

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