THE Newcastle Jets have ticked past 10,000 members and wholehearted keeper Glen Moss believes the home fans deserve more than they have received in the opening three games.
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The Jets, who have the third highest membership in the league, are yet to win in three games and sit second bottom ahead of the visit by Perth Glory to McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
"We owe our home fans better performances and better results," Moss said. "There is definitely a hunger and desire among the squad to do that.
"The first two games we certainly had chances. It's always more worrying when you don't create chances than creating them but not scoring.
"Hopefully we can pinch a goal early, get some momentum and bring our supporters into it, which would be really nice as well."
Moss has been hindered in the past two games by a gash on his knee which required six stitches and occurred at training.
"I dived for the ball and my right foot hit my knee," Moss explained. "I did it in the lead-up to the Adelaide game. Now every time I dive it opens up, like it did on Friday night. During the game, you are running on adrenaline, are concentrating and focused. The minor things like that don't bother you too much. The only concern is infection."
Perth, last season's runaway Premiers Plate winners, are coming off a surprise 2-1 loss to the Central Coast at home.
"I'm sure Perth will want to bounce back from their game," Moss said. "We want to obviously bounce back [from the 4-1 loss to Sydney]. I think it will be a really good game. Two teams with a lot to play for."
The Jets lost all three encounters with Perth last season. The Glory have added Bruno Fornaroli to an attack that already boasted attacking guns Diego Castro and Chris Ikonomidis.
"You can't concentrate too much on one player," Moss said. "I'm lucky to have Nigel Boogaard and Nikolai Topor-Stanley in front of me. They are aware of players' strengths. They will know how to handle Bruno - he likes the ball coming to feet, laying things off, spinning in behind. It is a matter of being patient but also not giving them too much time because they certainly can hurt you.
"If we can get our brand of football flowing, then we make other teams worry about us.
"We have showed it in patches in the first couple of games without the ball going into the net. Hopefully, it is a case of when it rains it pours. When one goes in a few more go in."
Meanwhile, the Jets will play their round six clash against Western United in Geelong as scheduled despite losing Abdiel Arroyo (Panama), Matthew Ridenton (New Zealand) and Bobby Burns (Northern Ireland under-21s).
Under competition guidelines, the Jets could have requested that the game be postponed because they were without two senior international players.
"We inquired about resheduling but we are not going to proceed," Jets CEO Lawrie McKinna a said. "The seasons has started well and we think the right thing to do is play the game. We will lose a couple of players, but it gives other players a chance as well."
Sydney FC played the season opener without Rhyan Grant and Andrew Redmayne.
"Sydney took a hit early in the season, and won the game," McKinna said. "We have some young boys who just have to step up."
The Jets have the bye in round seven and had the match with Western United been postponed it would have created a three week gap between games.
"That was another thing we took into consideration," McKinna said. "We want to keep momentum going."
The A-League scrapped international breaks this season due to the introduction of Western United and a need for playing dates.