Saturday is a true showdown for both the Jets and Roar.

As a Jets fan, you have to go to this match with a positive mindset, but you would be lying if you said there weren't weird feelings in your stomach about the game. Brisbane will be approaching this game as a "must win" to secure their record.

Gary van Egmond has promised the Newcastle fans that the Jets "will have a real Newcastle go", whatever that means. I hope it doesn't mean valiant defeat but I suspect it does. The last time I heard someone saying they'll "have a red-hot go", it was Nathan Rees, a recent ex-Premier of NSW. Do you remember him? I didn't think so.

Fortunately for Gary, Mitch Nicholls, Matt Jurman and Kofi Danning are away and won't feature in the game. That Mitch will be away is a real blessing because he's been having a real "red-hot go" in recent times. However, Thomas Broich will be there and will provide a huge degree of danger linking with Issey Nakajima Farran, Henrique and Berisha. How we keep their attack out is a real concern. Tarek and Byun have been culpable for some blunders lately and Toper hasn't really developed a solid relationship with Regan or Tiago.

Van Egmond, we know, is trying to change the Jets' style of play, and I doubt he'll renege on that for this match. The down side to that is that the players haven't fully adapted to that system yet, which you could see in the last two games. They lost possession when they should have kept it; they booted the ball away instead of passing to a team-mate when they were under pressure. They dwelt too long on the ball when they needed to move it more quickly and had it stolen from them. And they were visibly tired in the back end of the game.

To stand a chance against Brisbane, the Jets will need to go out with an aggressive approach, but not an over the top attitude like Melbourne Victory. Jobe and Ruben Zadkovich will need to be counselled to keep their tempers in check but bring a niggly, physical game.

In my opinion, the only way to draw or defeat Brisbane with the Jets team at the stage they are at the moment, is to apply huge pressure on Brisbane in our half and let them have the ball in theirs. We need young, fit and fast players to apply that pressure and to break as quickly as possible when we do get the ball.

I have seen Newcastle try to play on the break recently and it has broken down due to wayward passes. That can't be rectified in one week, but if Newcastle use the speed of Zadkovich, Abbas, Griffiths and combine that with the cleverness and movement of Bridges and Jeffers, we just might sneak it.

A counterattacking strategy probably doesn't include Wehrman, despite his lovely technical skills on the ball. You'd have to wonder about introducing Michael Bridges for this game too, partly because of his lack of game time and partly his age. But with Bridges, you just never know when he will play that magic ball to the feet of Jeffers, so you have to play him. Van Egmond says he'll play a cameo.

Despite all the possible team combinations, there will be two eventualities that van Egmond will need to discuss with the team, and how they deal with those will be critical. If Newcastle scores first, what will they do then? Will they continue to press Brisbane and look for more goals, or will they camp in the back booting the ball out and hope to keep Brisbane out for the rest of the game? I hope they don't just boot the ball out and wait for attack after attack. It's cringe-inducing. And giving the ball back to Brisbane would be the worst thing you could do.

The second possibility is that Brisbane scores first and that is easier to deal with. The Jets will have to continue to attack and hope to get back on even terms. If Brisbane scores and then Newcastle levels things up, that's where they should stop. If they were to press for a winner after being behind and coming back, I think the physical and mental effort would show in the second half and they would concede the game in the last twenty minutes. That's when Brisbane are very dangerous. If the Jets are three goals down, then it's time to go into damage-limitation.

It's going to be a fascinating match-up and probably the game of the round. In fact, it'd be fair to say that this game will be the most interesting game any team has played against Brisbane for a few weeks. Why?

Because Brisbane is away from home and will be desperate for a win or a draw. Brisbane's last game, at home to the Phoenix was a lesson for how the Phoenix should play away from home to nick a point, not a lesson in how to play against Brisbane at home in front of your fans.

Saturday's game won't be played with one team only wanting to nick a draw. Newcastle will be at home, playing in front of a noisy group of fans who will push the team to win. Brisbane will not accept a loss.

The other Brisbane game in recent memory was the Brisbane vs. Melbourne Victory game, which completely ruined by the red cards. Sure, Archie scored some superb goals and the first half was a lot of fun for a neutral, but it wasn't an even playing field. If Saturday's game can be played without cards spoiling it, it will be an absolutely cracking match.