ANY NEW season brings with it a sense of excitement, anticipation and hope. This was certainly the case among Phoenix supporters, even given the departure of the club’s two best performers, Shane Smeltz and Glen Moss.

The arrival of Chris Greenacre and Paul Ifill showed the club was at least attempting to fill the goalscoring void left by Smeltz. It's astonishing to think that after his 21 goals, the next most prolific goalscorer in the club's history is Daniel, who has just four to his name, all of which were scored the season before last, including two from the penalty spot. Never has an A-League team relied so heavily on one player over such a prolonged period to hit the net.

At the other end, Mark Paston takes over from Moss between the sticks. While most would accept that Moss is the superior shot-stopper (and probably without equal in the A-League), Paston is taller, and subsequently better with crosses, and also controls his area better. He was actually in line to be the starting ‘keeper in the very first game of Phoenix's existence, before a freak training ground accident the day before the match against Melbourne two years ago resulted in Moss grabbing the gloves and making every post a winner.

In front of Paston, a now settled back four of Manny Muscat, Andrew Durante, Ben Sigmund and Tony Lochhead looks reasonably solid, screened by the midfield pairing of Tim Brown and Jon McKain. In theory, teams would have to work hard to create openings and break down this competent defensive unit.

Well, that was what we thought anyway. However, yesterday's loss to Newcastle sounded early alarm bells, with all three goals conceded being down to poor marking. Jason Hoffman ran freely through the centre to score the first, and pounced on a rebound for his second after Song was given far too much space to line up his initial shot. The winner was an uncontested far post header. These are not the sort of incidents that will instil confidence in the Phoenix faithful.

Almost as worrying was the inability to create much at the other end. Sigmund's goal was from a set-piece (with the Jets catching Phoenix's poor-marking disease) and the second was a howler from Jets ‘keeper Ben Kennedy. Other than that, there was little to enthuse about in terms of chance creation.

Greenacre looks the goods - he worked tirelessly and took his one and only opportunity when it came. He'll score more if he's given the chance. Ifill, by his own admission, is short of a gallop, but showed enough to suggest he'll be effective too. But even Smeltz would have struggled yesterday with the lean pickings delivered through the Phoenix midfield.

Ricki Herbert's preference for two defensive midfielders leaves only the two wide men with attacking briefs and while Bertos in particular showed some endeavour (and created both goals), other openings were few and far between. Too often, long balls were pumped hopefully forward and easily dealt with by the Jets defence.

Perhaps Diego will provide the answer if he's given a decent run in the side and remains free of injury. However, if he's brought into the starting XI, it needs to be a central role, which would mean Herbert would either have to abandon one of his defensive midfield duo (probably Brown) or move to a 4-5-1 with Diego tucked in behind Greenacre and Ifill perhaps moving wider.

Let's be honest - Newcastle aren't a great side and no-one's picking them to make the top six. Therefore, if Phoenix are to harbour realistic playoff ambitions themselves, they need to get points against them. Their failure to do that now puts immense pressure on them to get a result against Perth at home this week, before an extremely difficult four weeks, which see them take on Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne (all away) and Adelaide at home.

If Phoenix thought the Jets were tough, that quartet will be another step up. Things need to be put right, and fast.