A-League soccer, 2023: Jets plan all-out attack on Sydney in hope of a miracle

Anything short of a landslide win over the Sky Blues in the final round will spell the end of the season for the Jets - even that might not be enough.

The Jets enter the final day in eighth spot on 29 points, three behind sixth-placed Wellington (32 points).

To climb into the six and end a five-year absence from the finals, the Jets (minus-13 goal difference) need to beat fifth-placed Sydney and have Wellington (minus-seven) lose to Macarthur by a margin to turn around a six-goal difference in for-and-against.

Perth (minus-nine) and Western United (minus-14) are also on 29 points and square up on Saturday night. Either could pip the Jets on goal difference with a win.

"We have to go all-out attack pretty much," Jets attacker Jaushua Sotirio said. "We need a swing of seven goals. We need to win 4-0 or 5-0 and hope Wellington lose by three ... something like that. We still believe. We had a chat on the field and calculated what we need to get in."

"We know we have to score a lot of goals. That is what we will try to do - all out attack, score a lot of goals and hope for the best."

The Jets-Sydney game and Macarthur-Wellington fixture both kick off at 5pm.

Incredibly, a poor result against the Sky Blues could result in the Jets finishing second bottom. Macarthur (-16) are last on 26 points, a point ahead of Brisbane (-8).

"We need to finish on a high anyway for ourselves," Sotirio said. "There is the pride factor, and you don't want to end up in the bottom four and face another play-off for the Australia Cup."

The Jets went down 2-0 to Sydney in their previous encounter at McDonald Jones Stadium on New Years Day.

The visitors will be without suspended co-captains Brandon O'Neil and Carl Jenkinson and have only scored more than three goals once this season - a 4-0 triumph over Brisbane at home on January 27.

READ MORE: WELLINGTON OR BUST FOR JETS

Sydney secured a play-off berth with a 2-0 win over Brisbane last round, effectively making Saturday's game a dead rubber and coach Steve Corica has flagged resting some players.

"They are safe. It's up to them what they want to do. That doesn't concern us," Sotirio said. "We know what we have to do. That is score a lot of goals, which means all-out attack."

The Jets have recorded one win - a 2-1 victory over Macarthur a fortnight ago - in the past seven games and are coming off a demoralising 3-1 derby defeat to the Mariners.

"It was hard to take," said Mark Natta, who was a standout for the Jets. "Especially going up 1-0 against your rivals. We didn't play that bad. Everyone was very disappointed. We thought we had a chance to do something this year, we still do, but the chances are much lower. We have to move forward, not dwell on last week's result, and give it 100 per cent for the last game. We need a lot of goals.

"If we win, we give ourselves a slight chance of getting lucky and getting in the finals. If we have a one per cent chance, we will give it our all to make it."

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