McDonald Jones Stadium pitch on track for Jets' A-League return

The Jets were forced to switch home games with Central Coast last Saturday after the Broadmeadow surface was deemed unfit for play following a Supercross event at the stadium. The state of the pitch after concert and motorsport events in recent years has been a source of frustration for the Jets and football supporters.

There were concerns the situation could be repeated this week but a spokesperson for stadium manager Venues NSW said representatives from A-Leagues governing body Australian Professional Leagues inspected the pitch on Tuesday and gave it the green light.

Jets chief executive Shane Mattiske later said the match was going ahead and the APL were assessing the situation.

The news will be welcomed by the Jets squad, who have played just once at home - in a 2-2 draw with Western Sydney - across the opening five rounds.

"It's been quite hefty on us, playing most of our games away so far this season, so it would be really good to get that home game in, get that home-game advantage," Newcastle left-back Lucas Mauragis said.

Newcastle went down 3-1 to last season's grand final winners on Saturday at Gosford and sit seventh on five points - one point in front of defending premiers City, who lost 1-0 away to Wellington Phoenix last week.

Like Central Coast, who had not earned a point before Saturday, City will be desperate to kick-start their campaign.

"I think every game we go in to, we've got to expect that the other team is going to be putting their best foot forward," Mauragis said.

"This weekend we will do the same."

The Jets defence was caught out of position and off the pace, especially in the first half, against the Mariners, who scored twice on Newcastle's left side then again after Archie Goodwin made it 2-1 in the 76^th minute.

Mauragis played 63 minutes before making way, shortly after the hosts went 2-0 up. He said the defence was a "collective effort" and "everyone takes responsibility for that."

"We always show up to play our best, we can't take that away from how we show up to games," he said.

"I don't know, just on the day it didn't work out the way we planned.

"But I think you can see from the team that we'll never back down or give up, and Archie did provide that spark and lifted all the players up. The result could have been different in the end if one or two things went our way.

"I think if we just play our best football, all the players know what we need to do, and I think we'll come out with the win."

"I feel like there's definitely something good that's about to brew. We had the results in pre-season and I feel like these results will come very soon."