That’s one way to silence the doubters.
After four straight games without a win, the Newcastle Jets roared back into form on Friday night with a 4-0 demolition job of Brisbane Roar on their home deck of McDonald Jones Stadium.
Arthur Papas’ side put their foot down after half-time, scoring all four of their goals in the second-half to put the visitors away in style. It was a performance akin to those which became a trademark in Papas’ first season of the club when they were up and firing.
The Jets rediscovered their attacking flair and swagger, blitzing through the Roar’s imposing defence with ease – as Reno Piscopo put in his best showing in a Jets jersey, while Jaushua Sotirio, Trent Buhagiar, Beka Mikeltadze and Archie Goodwin all hit the scoreboard.
However, prior to Friday evening, goals had been hard to come by for the Jets, only firing home 11 goals in their opening 13 games – which in turn, meant results had been hard to come by – with the Jets falling to as low as second-last heading into the clash with the Roar.
In turn, the noise from critics began to grow louder and louder with each passing game without a win as Newcastle began to slump down the ladder – sitting in 11th heading into Friday night’s contest.
But after scoring, Jets striker Mikeltadze made sure to send a message to the critics following his stunning goal from outside the box – celebrating by putting his fingers in his ears and closing his eyes – before doing ‘the talk too much gesture’ with his hand as he faced the crowd.
Mikeltadze was asked about the celebration post-game by Paramount+ host Ben Homer and the Georgian striker’s responded candidly – sending a message to the team’s critics and urging the club’s fans to keep the faith.
“When we don’t play perfect, everyone talks b*******!” Mikeltadze said.
And now everyone start talking maybe good. We need fans, we need our supporters when we have a bad times, when we have good times – we win games and everything’s okay.
“But we need fans when we have bad times… I heard many, many bad things when we weren’t having a good period.”
The win took the Jets into ninth and onto the precipice of the top-six, sitting only goal-difference behind sixth-placed Macarthur – along with seventh-placed Sydney FC and Perth Glory who are in eighth.
Mikeltadze spoke about the importance of Newcastle gaining some consistency in the second-half of the season, as they look to keep pace with the sides above them and make a run for a finals berth.
And a run of solid form from Mikeltadze will go a long way to helping the Jets back to the promised land as the Georgian striker broke his goal-scoring drought with his first in six games.
“Every game is like a final because all the teams are close, every team is on 17 or 14 points. We are so happy (to get the win),” he said.
For strikers, every goal is important. For me… when I score I’m happy.
