Jets midfield enforcer Brandon O'Neill knows he needs to do better to stay out of the referee's book early in games as Newcastle look to improve their aggression in defence on Saturday night against Melbourne City.
Newcastle host the defending A-League premiers and unbeaten leaders after a 4-0 away loss to Melbourne Victory, the worst of Arthur Papas's tenure, which followed a 2-0 defeat on the road to Western Sydney.
The losses came after a bright start to the season for the Jets at home with wins over Perth and Wellington.
Papas was critical of his side's final pass in attack against Victory on Friday night but also their pressure on the ball, saying "we definitely need to be more aggressive in individual battles all over the park."
Newcastle, though, were at a disadvantage early after O'Neill and fellow midfielder Angus Thurgate were booked inside 24 minutes.
O'Neill also got an eighth-minute yellow in the loss to Wanderers a week earlier, putting himself in a tenuous position for the rest of the match.
The former Perth and Sydney FC player said the winning more one-on-one contests was a major point in the Jets' review of last week's game and he needed to be able to do his part.
"I can only speak for myself and I got booked in the 24th minute and straight away as a midfielder, it's my job to be able to win the ball back for the team, and if I'm second guessing, I'm kind of letting the team down," O'Neill said.
"So it would be a good idea if I didn't get booked so early this week to be able to do my job properly.
"But in saying that, again in the review, you can see the positions we were taking defensively and we are sticking to the structure, but it's about being a bit more aggressive and a bit more front-footed. Not being safe and not second guessing ourselves, I think that's the mantra of how we try to defend."
Thurgate's card was five minutes earlier.
"Two midfielders that like to get stuck in and run about a bit, it always make it a bit difficult because you're on tenterhooks a little bit and you leave one in and let the team down that way, but we'll try to fix that this week and be as aggressive as we can be," O'Neill said.
The match against City is Newcastle's last before a month-long break for the World Cup.
O'Neill said the Jets were able to focus on positives from the heavy defeat, which featured two penalties.
"We looked at it in depth on how we want to play football, and you take away big moments of the game, there were actually positives we could take out of it, in the way we want to approach things, probably leading up to in and around the box," he said.
"A lot of learnings from the game, which is a big thing at the beginning of the season, and you're banking on us to be able to, before this World Cup break, get back together, have a good week's training and on Saturday at home putting in a performance that we know we can do."
Despite the recent losses, O'Neill - one of seven recruits in this year's starting line-up - said the Jets had the ingredients to become a "championship-winning team".
"Us as a new team have to learn, have to grow and I have no doubt we will," he said. "We've got the characters in the dressing room, we've got the environment in place that we're able to do so, and look, it's only round four, which is a good thing.
"We've got a game coming up now where we're at home, it's exciting to be able to play against these types of teams because you know our best is as good as anyone out there."
City, with four wins and a draw to start the year, have Jamie Maclaren, Marco Tilio and Mathew Leckie in contention for Socceroos World Cup squad selection on Tuesday. If picked, they will still be available for the Jets game, before joining the national camp.
"I hope they play, to be fair," O'Neill said.
"You want to play teams with their best players there, you don't want to play them weak, because when it comes to the business end you want to be beating those teams in the finals, so I hope they play, and I hope they get picked, because it's great for their country."
