FRENCH import Jason Berthomier suffered an untimely setback as the Newcastle Jets were beaten 4-3 by Macarthur Bulls in a pre-season friendly at Maitland on Thursday.
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Berthomier, the 33-year-old midfielder who has been one of Newcastle's main off-season signings, was among a group of players who had been afflicted by a stomach virus in the lead-up to the trial.
"He played well for 30 minutes but then it got the better of him and he had to come off," Jets coach Rob Stanton said.
"I'd been hoping he could play some longer minutes, but he was crook.
"But that's OK. Hopefully he can get a bit more time in our next couple of games."
Newcastle opened the scoring with a header in the seventh minute from defender Mark Natta, but Macarthur hit back with goals by Rapahel Borges Rodriguez and Clayton Lewis to lead 2-1 at half-time.
The Jets equalised through Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, before Lachlan Rose and Borges Rodriguez gave the visitors a 4-2 advantage.
The two sides played an additional 45 minutes after full-time, allowing Jacob Dowse to peg a goal back for Newcastle.
Stanton used the trial to provide some of his young tyros, including 16-year-old midfielder Will Dobson, with game time. He remains happy with how the squad is coming together but admitted there were areas that still needed to improve.
"I want us to be exposed against good teams and learn a bit about ourselves," he said. "I'd rather us learn these lessons now than in round one."
The Jets have further trials against Wellington (October 7) and Western Sydney (October 14) before their season-opener in Perth on October 22.
