To see today's training session...

To see deadball specialist Shannon Cole honing his skills...

The Sydney FC coach is expecting a tough tussle against a side looking to regain the pride so battered by a 5-0 thumping in Melbourne a fortnight ago.

However he is hoping Aloisi’s first start can help Sydney extend their unbeaten start to the campaign, even if the Socceroo forward won’t get 90 minutes of action.

Speaking after training at Macquarie University today Kosmina said: “I’m happy with the blokes we’ve got to choose from this week. Poppa (Tony Popovic) and Johnny are both going to start.

“Bridgey and Brosquey are both in good form and if you look at how Johnny went for 20 minutes against Perth, he could have had a hat-trick.

“Johnny takes up good positions so he’s going to cause problems. Even if he played half an hour a week he’d probably end up with hopefully nine or 10 goals this season. I’d like to get a bit longer out of him than that.

“We’ll see how he goes, it’s his first start. He won’t finish the game, I’m pretty sure for no other reason than I want to nurse him back through. We don’t need to overload him because I want him to be able to start next week. I think he can cause a lot of damage in 60 minutes.”

Kosmina will welcome a new face into his squad for the Newcastle clash with former Sydney Olympic and Australian Under 20 international Matthew Jurman making the trip to the Hunter.

“We’ve got Brendon Santalab back and brought a young boy in Matty Jurman. We’ve signed him as a youth team player and we’re quite happy to have him.

He’s very versatile, he’s a good left-sided defender. It’s given us a little bit of cover as I like to have a central defender on the bench."

He added: “I’ve seen enough of Matty Jurman to think he’s got quite a good future in the A-League if he works at his game and progresses like he has so far.

“We’ve also got a couple of other good young boys in the youth team that have got senior football experience at premier league level. They’ve got good heads on their shoulders.”

With both Simon Colosimo and Jacob Timpano on the injured list, Shannon Cole will start at right back with Iain Fyfe moving into central defence.

Kosmina is happy with the build up to the game after the FIFA window break and said: “They’ve been so upbeat all week. Today they’re a little bit edgy, which is a good thing. It means they’re tuned into what we’ve got ahead of us in the next couple of days.”

However confident he may be in his own side, Kosmina expects Newcastle to come out firing tomorrow in a bid to bounce back from their horror show at the Telstra Dome.

The Sydney FC boss said: “They’re too good a side. There’s too many blokes in there with too much pride. They’re a proud city. They don’t like to get beaten. You would expect them to come back.

“That was two weeks ago. They’ve had two weeks to get over that loss. It should be forgotten by now, it’s a fresh start. If we’d played them last week it might have been a different kettle of fish.”

The match sees Jets old boys Mark Bridge and Stuart Musialik returning to EnergyAustralia Stadium for the first time since they left the club and Kosmina said: “It’ll be interesting to see how they react.

"This is the longest spell we’ve had them available for training (due to the Olympics) and they’re both real good pro’s. They’re both really happy with where they are at the moment and they’re looking forward to playing against their old club.”

Earlier this week Jets coach Gary van Egmond told au.fourfourtwo.com that no-one at the club had forgotten how Sydney FC had beaten them three times.

Kosmina joked: “I’d forgotten about it. I’m glad you reminded me. Maybe it means we’ve got the wood on them? I hope it does.”

To see today's training session...

To see deadball specialist Shannon Cole honing his skills...