Marked for Daniel Jackson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Nov 2031
25 matches without a win for Newcastle Jets
The run now stands at 25, and the questions being asked around Newcastle Jets are no longer polite ones.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Thomas Aquilina damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match19 Nov 2031
Auckland FC go through and Newcastle Jets go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Daniel Jackson could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.22
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.22, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Tim Hughes, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Zach Clough was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces24 Nov 2031
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match22 Nov 2031
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Sep 2031
Supporters organise against the Newcastle Jets board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom15 Sep 2031
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Newcastle Jets is running low.
Match15 Sep 2031
Position 12, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Newcastle Jets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Zach Lisolajski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
Chris Gordon gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
Joel Stewart is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout19 May 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Newcastle Jets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 May 2031
Zach Clough was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 May 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Jackson commits to Newcastle Jets for another 3 years.
The dugout19 May 2031
Joel O'Neill asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout19 May 2031
Joe Shaughnessy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Newcastle Jets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market19 May 2031
Thomas Ude runs his contract down
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Newcastle Jets money.