Casey Dumont and Amy Jackson are set to make their 100th Westfield W-League appearances when Melbourne Victory visits the Newcastle Jets.
Summary
Dumont and Jackson are both one game away from reaching the milestone ahead of Sunday’s clash at the No.2 Sportsground.
Victory will make the trip to Newcastle looking to bounce back from a Derby loss and aiming to strengthen its grip on a finals spot.
Jackson, 32, returned to Victory ahead of this season and has made 56 of her 99 Westfield W-League appearances for the club.
Dumont, who arrived at Victory in 2017, is enjoying a fine campaign, having started all 10 of the club’s games in 2019/20.
Victory is looking for a response after its four-game winning streak came to an end with its loss to City.
With two regular-season games remaining, Victory is three points clear of fifth-placed Brisbane Roar.
It has won its past two meetings with the Jets, while it has also avoided defeat on its past two trips to Newcastle.
Head coach Jeff Hopkins’ pre-match thoughts
on returning to action last week…
“There were a number of things that we could point to, but it definitely didn’t help having the break. Sometimes you look forward to a break and you need a break, but I think we definitely were on a roll after the Canberra game and it most probably didn’t do us any good. Getting another game under our belt and just being able to get back to the training field and focus on a few things just leading into the game is going to be good for us. Game can’t come quick enough for us to be honest.”
on Dumont and Jackson…
“One hundred games is a huge achievement, it’s a massive milestone, more so I think in the women’s games because the Westfield W-League is only 12 games long, plus finals. Both of them have been around a long time and have been very, very consistent, that’s why they’re still around, and both of them are having really good seasons this year as well. I think everyone at the club is really pleased for them, really proud of them and it will be good to celebrate with them this weekend.”
on the Jets…
“They are a good side, they’re always a tough team to play, they’re always hard working, well-organised, they’re well-coached. We had a good performance against them at AAMI Park a while back and I thought we played really well against them that day, but even so they came back at us in the second half and made things pretty hard for us after we dominated the first half. It’s going to be a tough proposition for us, but if we want to make finals and we’re serious about being in the finals and getting a finals berth then we need to be able to go to Newcastle and win the game and that’s obviously what we’re planning to do. Obviously after last week we’re hurting a little bit so we’ll be going out there with all guns blazing.”
Last time
Westfield W-League 2019/20 Round 8
Melbourne Victory 2-1 Newcastle Jets
Sunday, January 5, 2020
AAMI Park, Melbourne
Victory delivered a fine performance when it met the Jets earlier this season.
Natasha Dowie and Darian Jenkins scored in the opening 25 minutes and Victory held on despite Gema Simon’s 61st-minute goal.
As it stands
Match details
Newcastle Jets v Melbourne Victory
No.2 Sportsground, Newcastle
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Kick-off: 4.00pm AEDT