Injured forward Sunny Franco has backed her Newcastle Jets teammates to rise to the occasion when they host A-League Women pace-setters Sydney FC at No.2 Sportsground on Sunday night.
Franco is sidelined with a season-ending ankle injury, sustained after the 24-year-old produced her first goal of 2021-22 with the equaliser in a 3-3 draw against Canberra at McDonald Jones Stadium on January 30.
The match was the first of four in 14 days for the Jets, who lost 3-0 to Adelaide in Adelaide on February 4 then went down 1-0 to Melbourne Victory in Newcastle on Tuesday night.
The latest results have left Newcastle in sixth with nine points. They are nine points off the pace of the nearest sides above them - Perth, Adelaide and Victory all have 18 - with six games to play.
As well as missing Franco on Tuesday night, the Jets were without experienced centre-back Hannah Brewer and striker Tara Andrews due to COVID-related isolation and several players were battling illness.
But, with several forced changes to the starting side and limited depth, Newcastle produced a gutsy performance against the full-strength Victory.
Franco expected another gallant effort from her teammates, who are fighting to keep alive their top-four hopes against a high-flying Sydney side that won't have played for 11 days and have only been scored against once this campaign.
"I feel like we haven't had a break, but I think that's going to show our mental toughness as a team," Franco said.
"What better game to show how resilient we are than against Sydney. When we have this sort of pressure on us, we maybe even perform a little bit better.
"We've got to really step up to the plate and come out show everyone how good we can be, and against Sydney that's going to be a good time to do it because they've been the unbeatable team."
The Jets lost 3-1 to the Sky Blues in their season-opener on December 4 and remain the only side to have scored against the ladder leaders, who have amassed 25 points.
Jets coach Ash Wilson expected Andrews to be available Sunday but said Brewer was less likely.
Centre-back Taren King is expected to return to the starting side after not playing on Tuesday through illness and Jets fans are likely to see more of Norwegian forward Marie Dolvik Markussen, who was limited to 16 minutes off the bench.
"Taz has definitely been feeling a lot better over the last couple of days," Wilson said. "Marie trained a full session [Thursday night] and it's about managing her, but we're confident we'll be able to get more minutes into her this weekend."
The game is at 7.45pm.
