Sasho hits the target again.

Can the Jets run of form continue? Another win can take them into the top six, with games in hand.

With Sasho Petrovski scoring in game after game, can Branko afford to leave him on the bench? And on other things, now that Australia won't be hosting the 2022 World Cup, will a pall of gloom settle over some of Newcastle's rivals in the second half of the season?

But flashing back a few games, it was pretty amusing to see the Phoenix away crowd there at the EAS and good on them too. Both of them. I could swear I could hear the sounds of "Slice of Heaven" wafting up from the away bay. It didn't last however, as Wellington continued their dire away form and lost.

As for the Jets last-minute comeback against local rivals the Mariners, who else but Sasho Petrovski?! That draw felt like a victory, because the Jets play was at times scrappy and the Mariners played competently. And even though this season the Mariners are harder to hate than previous years because it looks like they're actually trying to play football, (they still have Hutcho and Matt Simon in there to curse at), it still feels good when we take something away from them. The look on Wilkinson's face after the Jets goal was priceless.

But back to the story, and another victory, this time on the road to North Queensland, and it's starting to paint a picture. What it tells me is that the team can grind out a result if they need to, they can come back from behind if they need to, they can win away too. They're building back to that spirit that they showed at the start of the season, which was an extremely resolute team that was very hard to beat.

The game against Nth Queensland was interesting because both teams exerted control at different parts of the game. Early on, the Jets couldn't seem to string their passes together too well and Nth Queensland had a number of chances which on another night would have gone in (a bit like about 5 Jets games I can remember recently). But then for a good spell of the first half, the Jets dominated and I thought would nick a goal and then hold on to it.

The other thing the Jets did perfectly, was to annoy Fury. There was a lot of niggle and it really put Fury off their game. They started picking up yellow cards and then became nervous. It showed in the end when Topor-Stanley loomed in once again and used to his Chewbacca size to knock home another goal, from a corner which came from a free kick.

Topor-Stanley has obviously been cultivating his heading skills and it's working a treat. That goal, coming from a defender, was a game-breaker and meant that Fury had to attack and leave spaces in behind. That's what they did and they suffered for it. For a microsecond there I thought Haliti duffed that Jets counterattack with a too heavy lay-off to Abbas, but Ali was clever enough to put it in front of Petrovski who showed all his class by placing the ball in the side netting while facing away from goal. Nice.

It seems Branko is really keen to give his youthful strikers a go, but a time has to come when potential has to lead to success for the younger players, and if it doesn't, then perhaps use them more sparingly. just a thought.

You have to wonder about the morale of Nth Queensland Fury too. They have no job security, players are signing with other clubs, the World Cup bid was unsuccessful. Is the writing on the wall? Cernak is going, Pasfield too, Malik has just announced he's going to Adelaide and Chris Payne is coming to Newcastle (who's he replacing??).

FFA might have to seriously think about consolidating the A-League to make it more profitable, or even sustainable. If you were a player in a doomed team, how would you feel? Motivated or not? The same might be said for Gold Coast United, who despite the fact that they are playing for less than two thousand fans (including their coach, owner and staff), are sitting in a very healthy position on the table.

How could you maintain motivation when nobody else really cares if your team exists or not? At least here in Newcastle, we have a parochial pride in our team, up there in the Gold Coast, most of the locals couldn't give a rats arse. Think about Joel Porter and Jason Culina, among others. These guys have played in front of packed crowds in foreign lands. Surely turning up to play in an empty stadium would affect you. But you have to feel sorry for the football faithful, who stand to lose their team. It's a situation no fan would want to contemplate.

So these things might affect the form of at least these two teams and give the other teams an unintentional leg-up. With Perth and Sydney in poor form, and the Jets definitely on the up, it makes for an interesting squabble to get in to the top six. Beat  Melbourne Heart tonight and the Jets morale will rise even further.