Culina admitted his F3 arch-rivals were the better team in the first half after drawing 1-1 with Central Coast Mariners last night. The Mariners dominated possession in the first 45 and were unlucky to squander several good chances of taking the lead.

But Culina said his side was still rusty after a shortened pre-season to prepare for the campaign.

"Not only have we got a number of players who are not at their peak fitness, you have got to understand that Newcastle was in the ACL until June 24," he said.

"We gave the players a 10 day break, we didn't start our pre-season until July 6 when everyone else had been training for four months."

But despite being under pressure for most of the second half, the Jets didn't buckle and keeping the clean sheet into the break proved vital.

They visitors came out rejuvenated in the second half, switching from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 with Ljubo Milicevic performing brilliantly in midfield for the instant reward of a goal from Jin-Hyung Song soon after the restart.

The Mariners replied with a goal from Nigel Boogaard almost immediately but the pendulum swung firmly in the Jets direction for the rest of the match.

The Jets' boss also paid tribute to this evening's opponent, explaining that the Mariners were cruising throughout much of the opening stanza.

Culina added: "Central Coast were by far the better team in the first half, they outplayed us, they had control of the game and they caused us a lot of problems.

"We had a few chances in the first half but they dominated and we had to address it.

"Not only did we make the change with Ljubo but we changed from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 as well, which meant we had more options further up the field.

"The key was to control the middle of the park, and I thought the second half was a far better performance from our team."