O'Donovan excited by Jets' strike force
Oct 8, 2017 - 7:51 AM Hat-trick hero Roy O'Donovan says Newcastle's exciting new attacking combination has huge potential.O'Donovan, who scored three times for the Jets in the first 38 minutes of Saturday's 5-1 opening round A-League win against his former club Central Coast in Gosford, was part of a potent attacking quartet.
Fellow recruits Dimi Petratos and Ronald Vargas and last season's Jets leading scorer Andrew Nabbout, were all lively.
"It's got huge (potential) there's plenty of experience, there's plenty of goals in the locker there," O'Donovan said.
"It's a matter of building on it now. We're probably about 75 to 80 per cent there where we want to be.
"I can't say we came into the game perfect with combinations but things clicked very well.
"We keep practising, we keep improving and hopefully a big season ahead."
With substitute Joseph Champness coming off the bench to score, Jets coach Ernie Merrick was excited about having multiple potential threats.
"I think in my years of coaching, I've found it's all about strikers," Merrick said.
"When I've had goalscorers like Archie Thompson, Danny Allsop, Robbie Kruse, that's the difference. And we've got four of them, maybe five.'
While Merrick has no doubt Newcastle have the quality to make the finals for the first time since 2010, he cautioned against getting carried away by their first-game blitz
"It was a good performance for probably two thirds of the match, not for the whole match, we probably played decent football for about 55, 60 minutes," Merrick said.
He felt jibes about Newcastle and O'Donovan by some Mariners fans had served to motivate his team.
"I'm not into that sort of stuff and I think its backfired on them big time," Merrick said.
O'Donovan wasn't fazed by a banner at the ground depicting his head on the body of a snake or the jeers of some of the Mariners fans.
"I would have been disappointed if they didn't jeer me, it would have meant I didn't do something right when I was there," O'Donovan said.
Source: AAP
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