Jets coach Carl Robinson keeping an eye on finals frontier

Robinson is set to oversee his first full training session on Tuesday morning after the club announced last week the former Welsh international had signed a three-and-a-half-year contract.

The former Vancouver Whitecaps manager takes over the team who are last on the A-League ladder, albeit equal with Central Coast on 13 competition points.

They are still nine points adrift on sixth-placed Brisbane after Sunday's 4-3 win against the Mariners, and play eighth-placed Western Sydney and Melbourne Victory (ninth) in their next two games.

With 10 games remaining, there are still theoretically more than enough points on offer for Newcastle to reach the top six.

The signing of striker Roy O'Donovan, and the likelhood that his Irish compatriot Wes Hoolahan will soon be fit to make his A-League debut, after recovering from ankle surgery, should provide the Jets with a boost.

But given they have won only three of their first 16 games, many will be sceptical about their prospects of staging a dramatic form reversal. But asked by Fox Sports commentators on Sunday if he felt the finals were a realistic goal, Robinson replied: "I believe it is. My job is to make them believe it is."

Robinson described the performance against the Mariners as a "mixed bag".

Newcastle led 2-0 and then 4-2, but conceded sloppy goals that left the game hanging in the balance until the 90^th minute.

"I thought they were terrific with the ball," Robinson told Fox Sports. "There was a number of chances they let go which they could've scored five, six, seven goals on a different day.

"But three mental lapses, obviously allowed Central Coast to stay in the game, which was a little bit unjust, if it would've ended 4-4."

Robinson added that he believed the Jets had "a really good group of players" that he might try to bolster with "one or two" signings.

"You're not going to score four goals every day," he said. "But lots of positives to work on."