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The Jets sit second bottom of the A-League with one game in hand while their neighbours down the F3 are enjoying another strong season, currently sitting fifth and within two wins of top spot on the ladder.

Seven points split the Jets and Mariners and on paper and after last week's results - the Jets' horror home 3-1 loss to Victory and Central Coast's 3-0 away hammering of Roar - it's the Mariners who'd be the bookies' raging favourite to at least nick a point, if not three, at EnergyAustralia Stadium tonight.

But the Mariners' Maltese international John Hutchinson believes the youngsters in Branko Culina's squad such as Kaz Patafta, Tarek Elrich, Ben Kantarovski , Sean Rooney, Jason Naidovski and Jason Hoffman pose an unpredictable edge to the clash at EA stadium.

And he's not taking them lightly.

"They've got a lot of young boys and young boys are unpredictable. It's up and down when you're a young fella and if you take them lightly, they'll punish you," he tells au.fourfourtwo.com.

"They've got a good team but the young boys are hot and cold - they will punish you though and you've got to go there and do what we're good at, at the Mariners, which is work hard.

"You don't want to lose to the people up the road to you."

It's a mantra Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna has also trotted out. He says the F3 this season is hard to predict.

"Anything can happen, and we just need to be prepared for anything to happen, because it usually does."

The Jets have proven their unpredictability this year.

After finishing bottom of the A-League last season they reignited their stocks with a stunning ACL campaign which featured two wins against South Korea's Ulsan Hyundai, a creditable away draw against Nagoya and a home victory over China's Beijing Guoan.

And in this season's A-League, high-flying Gold Coast crashed to a first home defeat in the Hunter. Since then, however, the Jets have been decidedly hot and cold.

It all makes for an intriguing second F3 of the season.

However, all the talk of youngsters appears lost on Culina. He told Fairfax Media he's looking at his older heads to lead the way on Friday night.

''This is an appeal to the senior players, the [Sasho] Petrovskis, [Fabio] Vignarolis, [Matt] Thompsons and Ange Costanzos to say, 'Guys, tonight, you have to lead us and show the younger players the way,''' Culina told the Herald.

''This is why we picked up [Michael] Bridges from England as well because even he though he's not as dynamic as he once was, he's a leader, and we're appealing to all of those senior players, 'Please, show a bit of leadership.'"

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