The Newcastle Jets' horror start to the season has continued, with the reigning A-League Men premiers still winless across all competitions after falling 2-1 away to Perth Glory.
Eliminated from the Australia Cup in the last-32 and defeated in all four of their Asian Champions League Elite fixtures, a brace from Jaiden Kucharski at HBF Park on Saturday ensured the Jets have now gone the entire opening month of their league campaign without saluting.
Heading into the international break after five games in just a fortnight, they’ll next host Kashiwa Reysol in the ACLE on November 24, with no A-League Men games on tap until a December 12 trip to Melbourne Victory.
“I can't ask any more of them,” coach Mark Milligan told Paramount+.
“The schedule has been difficult; a lot of travel this trip just to finish off a massive 14 days.
“Our intent in terms of the way we tried to play from the beginning tonight was very, very good.”
Picked out by a neat pass from Sebastian Despotovski and given an angle on goal, Kucharski fired a laser into the top corner in the 39th minute, giving him goals in back-to-back games.
He then doubled his haul three minutes into the second stanza, receiving a throw-in, turning, shaking off Jets skipper Max Burgess, and driving a low effort into the bottom corner.
“I put a lot of focus on myself, to try and be one of those players that can make something happen every time we get the ball,” Kucharski told Paramount+.
“I really pride myself on that.”
Kucharski’s heroics ensured that Adam Griffiths’ side headed into the international break inside the top six.
But the attacker wasn’t Glory’s only hero, with the West Australians also owing plenty to goalkeeper Daniel Solsky after he produced a superb double save in the 23rd minute to first deny an Alex Grant header from a corner and then see off a point-blank effort from Patrick Wood.
The visitors would also have plenty of the ball in the second stanza as they crashed against Glory’s block, but their 92nd-minute breakthrough via Nikos Vergos came too late to spark a comeback.
“When you're in a result rut, it's difficult to get out of it, (especially) because we've had so many games,” said Milligan.
“But look, we have a good five weeks without A-League games now, so plenty of time to work on it.”
