Liberty A-League preview: Jets v Victory

Match details

Newcastle Jets v Melbourne Victory
No.2 Sportsground, Newcastle
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Kick-off: 5.25pm AEDT

Preview

Melbourne Victory is aiming to continue building momentum in the Liberty A-League ahead of a trip to Newcastle to face the Jets on Tuesday.

Victory returned to action with a 2-0 win over the Wellington Phoenix on Friday, beginning what is a busy run of fixtures.

Alana Murphy and Tiffany Eliadis scored their first Liberty A-League goals in that win, which marked Victory’s second straight.

It also marked the second consecutive game in which Victory has kept a clean sheet while conceding relatively few chances.

That was the first of six games Victory is scheduled to play in 23 days after a coronavirus-interrupted season so far.

Victory (15 points) sits fourth on the table ahead of the trip, but has played fewer games than Sydney FC (25), City (21) and Adelaide United (18).

In a huge boost, Commonwealth Bank Matildas Kyra Cooney-Cross and Courtney Nevin are set to return for the meeting with the Jets.

Nevin was an unused substitute against the Phoenix, while Cooney-Cross missed the encounter through suspension.

Victory has won the past five meetings with Newcastle and 14 of the 20 clashes between the Clubs in the Liberty A-League.

Player in focus

Murphy has settled in tremendously in her first Liberty A-League season. The 16-year-old has found her feet in the Victory midfield and was on the scoresheet against Wellington.

What they said – Hopkins

on squad health…
“We’ve trained this morning (Sunday). Everyone is good. It worked out really well for us, we got Brooke (Hendrix) on for 15, 20 minutes at the end of the game and everyone got through the game really well. We got recovery done straight after the game as well. We’ve trained this morning, we had a really light session just to get the game out of their legs, just to restart them for the week, players have had massage after training, hopefully they’ll relax all day and come in ready to go again tomorrow.”

on Cooney-Cross and Nevin…
“They were back in. Obviously we had to call Courtney in when ‘Zimm’ (Catherine Zimmerman) couldn’t play on gameday so Court came in, but we definitely didn’t want to use her. It’s good to have her and Kyra back, two quality players back into the side and two fresh players to come in and two players that have been away for a little while so glad to be back and it’s just really nice to see how they’ve come back and all the girls have missed them, it was a really good vibe in training today so things are looking very positive, especially after a good win on Friday as well.”

on a chance to build momentum…
“That’s the thing. Obviously it’s a tough period for us, it’s going to be hard backing up game after game, but the good thing is it’s a great opportunity for us to accumulate a lot of points in a very short amount of time so by doing that we can jump up the league and then we can really consolidate our place in the Finals positions … We’d rather be in this position playing every few days than not having a game like we have been for the last three weeks so the girls are very comfortable with the schedule coming up.”

Last time

Liberty A-League 2020/21 Round 9
Newcastle Jets 0-2 Melbourne Victory
Saturday, February 20, 2021
No.2 Sportsground, Newcastle

Victory struck twice in the opening half-hour in a win in Newcastle last season.

Kayla Morrison and Catherine Zimmerman were on the scoresheet in a comfortable success.

https://twitter.com/mvfcwomen/status/1362994533881942017

Head to head

Round 9, 2020/21: Jets 0-2 Victory at No.2 Sportsground
Round 14, 2020/21: Victory 4-2 Jets at Latrobe City Stadium
Round 13, 2019/20: Jets 0-7 Victory at No.2 Sportsground
Round 8, 2019/20: Victory 2-1 Jets at AAMI Park
Round 2, 2018/19: Victory 2-1 Jets at Lakeside Stadium