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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Renee Valentine

Shot-stopper Georgina Worth on playing for keeps with the Newcastle Jets

Goalkeeper Georgina Worth is aiming for consistency with the Newcastle Jets after joining the A-League club from Brisbane in the off-season. Picture by Marina Neil

Georgina Worth readily admits her first outing for Newcastle was not perfect.

But, overall, the 25-year-old shot-stopper hardly put a foot wrong in a debut appearance for the Jets that showed the competition is on for the club's No.1 spot.

Worth, who joined Newcastle after three campaigns at Brisbane, took ownership for the Jets conceding their first goal against her former club in a season-opening 2-1 loss at Queensland's Perry Park last Saturday.

The exercise physiologist earned a starting spot in round one after a strong pre-season and was her own harshest critic when speaking to media through the week.

"The first goal came off the back of my mistake, to put it simply, so that was disappointing, but otherwise I'm happy with how I played," Worth said.

"I felt comfortable ... so I'm just keen to put that mistake aside and move on."

Roar's 31st minute breakthrough goal came after Worth rushed a pass with a free kick from deep in Jets territory. Teammates were still getting into position and the ball was intercepted in the middle of the park by Roar strike weapon Shea Connors, who exploited a back-tracking defence to set up the goal.

It was the only blemish in an otherwise solid performance for Worth, who is battling long-serving Jet Claire Coelho for the goalkeeping position.

"I'm really happy to have made my debut for the club," Worth said.

"Obviously disappointed with the result, but I just enjoyed being out there and it was nice to pull on the jersey for the first time ...

"There's not an out and out No.1, and that's how it should be. Week in, week out, competing for who's going to be starting and that's the best way to bring out the best in both of us.

"So it's been good so far, Claire and I pushing each other along and supporting us regardless of who ends up playing on the weekend."

Worth was born in Brisbane but grew up in Canberra, playing all of her youth football there.

She was recognised as one of the country's most talented young shot-stoppers with Australian under-17 and under-20 selection and sensationally made her national league debut for Brisbane in 2016-17 with a memorable performance that included saving a penalty against the Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium.

Worth also played the past two campaigns with the Roar, but the last was cut short due to a knee injury.

"I've had a couple of inconsistent seasons, particularly with injury, so the biggest thing for me this year is just a consistent season - getting as many minutes as possible, being injury free and getting back to my best football," Worth said.

"On a team level we want to make finals, so I want to be a part of that and I want to help the team achieve that."

The Jets trailed 2-0 at half-time against Brisbane but fought back to almost take a point.

"Looking back on the game, everything was in our control," Worth said.

"The goals we conceded were off our mistakes, so that's something that we can fix up, and the chances that we created were off our own good work, so that leaves us in a good position moving forward to know that we can actually get results ourselves."

The Jets play Western Sydney at Tamworth's Scully Park on Saturday afternoon. They drew 2-2 with the Wanderers, who had the bye in round one, in a pre-season trial game on November 5.

"With any trial game, you can get a bit of a gauge for the players they've got and how they're going to set up," Worth said.

"It will be different this weekend. They'll have all of their players in - they didn't have some of their American internationals starting when we did play them."

The Jets' men's team play Melbourne City in a friendly after the women's match.

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