The ghost of early losses lurks

I recently returned from 8 days of sensory deprivation in the southern highlands of NSW where Mrs Mike owns a restored church with no Foxtel, indeed, no TV reception at all. So on return to the faithful home entertainment system and the HDD, I was able to watch the game against Melbourne Victory and then hop off to see the game against Sydney. What a contrast.

Two different games of football, with the same result. In Melbourne, the Jets dominated the game, passing was crisp, fast, along the ground mostly. Victory did play a good game, a much more interesting game than I have seen them play recently. A pity they didn't play badly like they had been doing recently. But their first goal was completely against the run of play. The Jets should have already been a goal up from that Wheelhouse shot.

In the game against Sydney, the players had a different attitude, or something. Ljubo's injury unsettled the Jets and Sydney's goals showed some big holes in the defence that possibly wouldn't have appeared if Ljubo was on the pitch. For much of the first half, the team looked disjointed, panicky on the ball and couldn't keep posession. Branko obviously game them a serving at half time because the second half was dramatically better.

So why and how did we lose both games?

In the game against Melbourne Victory, the long distance goal from Hernandez swerved slightly, but really, Ben Kennedy probably should have got something on that one. Ouch. That's just unfair! They have a guy who can shoot on target.

The winning goal by little Robbie Kruse was gold, there's no denying that. How many dummies did he sell on that run around the box before he crossed it in to Ricardinho? I hate losing, but if that's the kind of skills that causes you to lose, you really can't complain.

The Jets needs someone to take the bull by the horns and teach themselves that kind of close ball control. We have no one at the moment who could do what Kruse did. Maybe Ali, but he's not on the front line.

We still should have beaten Victory. Oh well, losing isn't so bad when you play well.

Against Sydney, we didn't play well. Maybe it was the off field issues, maybe it was Ljubo's announcement that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season. Maybe it was too much celebrating on New Year's Eve. Whatever it was, it resulted in a pretty lacklustre first half performance which made Sydney look good. Actually, they did look okay, but nothing the Jets couldn't usually deal with comfortably. But two goals conceded by the Jets from at times comical defending put them in a nasty situation at half time.

For a good spell in the second half, the Jets looked like they would equalise, Sasho hitting the woodwork and Labi screwing a shot wide when it must have been easier to kick it in. In the end it wasn't quite enough and the very healthy crowd had to go home bummed out.

Ryan Griffiths played, apparently. I'm pretty sure I saw a skinny bloke going for a run up one end of the field when there was a game of football on. He'll come good, no doubt, he's a quality player. Maybe the fact that Jeffers was leaving had a significant impact on the team's mindset. When a player that good comes along and revs up your whole season, you're going to be disappointed when the club can't re-sign him.

The interplay between Jeffers and the other attackers was clearly missing in the game against Sydney and it wasn't until Petrovski came on that someone was able to hold the ball up that we saw some glimpses of more creative play occurring.

In the past two games, I have noticed Wheelhouse stamping himself on the game again and he is a very good option to have in the midfield. He probably could have dropped back into the centre back position instead of Wehrmann against Sydney and been more effective. It would also have been nice to have the option to put Kantarovski into Ljubo's spot when he went off but it wasn't to be.

Ruben Zadkovich has been excellent again recently. His cracking goal against Melbourne and the assist against Sydney were rewards for his efforts. Is he the Jets answer to Gareth Bale? He's very very fast, he can flick the ball on and outrun opponents. His crosses in to the box have been very good, and his dummies and feints have bamboozled defenders. He needs to find his best position on the field and get closer to goal. He should be scoring as well as providing assists.

Now, there are some Branko haters out there on other sites. Well, OK not sites, just one site, the Newcastle Herald. Personally, I like what he's doing with his hair colour right now and I think they should leave him alone. It's terrific that a man in the public eye can express himself like that without fear of the criticism.

But seriously I don't think the two recent losses had a huge amount to do with Branko. OK, he was part of it, but not all. The Jets really played a high tempo, intense game away against Melbourne and the way he set the team out to go into that game to get a result was very positive.

Branko also had an attacking line-up for the game against Sydney, although Ljubo's injury messed up the plans. Why he waited until so late to bring on Haliti and Petrovski I don't know. These decisions are taken on the run so to speak, so they're not so easy.

Petroski needed to come on earlier. Maybe even immediately after half-time. He scores goals. Even at his senior citizen like age, he still scores goals, but he needs opportunities. Haliti is fast and can run at tired defenders but loses momentum after a time and seems to best as an impact substitute. And without Jeffers to feed off, Marko Jesic seemed pretty ineffectual and may struggle to keep his starting spot if Joel Griffiths returns on a loan deal.

And so the ghost of games past comes back to haunt.

There were games lost early in the season that the Jets should have won, except, by unfortunate twists, they lost. Games where they dominated or held their own only to be denied by last minute screamers, or poor referees decisions.

If those games had gone our way, then a few losses at this stage of the season wouldn't be so critical. But now we're clinging on to the table by our fingernails.

Fortunately, there are still games in hand. But if the Jets can't win against the cellar-dwellers, it's a grim outlook for the rest of the season.