Brisbane Roar will aim to climb off the foot of the Australian A-League table on Saturday, when they entertain Newcastle Jets.
With the division still particularly tight, the hosts are just three points worse off than their eighth-placed opponents, who themselves are still within touching distance of the top six after a dip in form.
Match preview
Brisbane Roar have endured a relatively difficult A-League campaign so far this year, and they head into the weekend as the division's basement side with just 23 points on the board from their opening 22 outings.
That is despite a somewhat positive start, as they managed to earn 15 points from the first 10 matches before going through a seven-game winless run in the following encounters, including a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Saturday's opponents.
That run spelled the end of Warren Moon's tenure as manager, and under the temporary charge of Nick Green, the Roar quickly returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Perth Glory, but they were unable to build a run on the back of that result, suffering two further defeats in early March.
Green would then oversee a second victory of his tenure in mid-March, as Jay O'Shea netted the only goal of the game in the final 10 minutes of their clash at home to Western United, before most recently visiting Central Coast Mariners last weekend and again failing to put back-to-back triumphs together as they were on the wrong end of a 4-1 beating.
Their hosts went three goals up inside the opening half-hour, and after Jamie Cummings made it four on the hour mark, a converted penalty from O'Shea in the 82nd minute was nothing more than a consolation, and having now won just two of their last 12 league games, the Roar will be keen to end the season on a high with an upturn in form to climb off the foot of the A-League table.
They host a Newcastle Jets side who will hope to correct their own form, having recently dropped away from the top five following a poor run of form.
Heading into the final months of the campaign, Arthur Papas's side sat in a relatively strong position after 17 A-League games, as they sat on 24 points having put seven victories on the board.
Their form has since taken a sharp dip, though, with the Jets failing to add another notch to their wins column in the last five attempts, while only picking up two more points along the way, as they firstly suffered three consecutive league defeats, falling to Western United, Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United between late February and mid-March.
While they have now halted that losing run with consecutive draws heading into the weekend, Papas's men have been pegged back in injury time in both games, firstly drawing 2-2 at home to Perth Glory following Ryan Williams's 97th-minute leveller for the visitors, before they looked set to come away from a trip to league leaders Melbourne City with a 1-0 victory last time out, thanks to Beka Mikeltadze's first-half opener from the penalty spot, only for Max Caputo to force a share of the spoils in the dying embers.
With those late goals having denied the Jets four points which could see them sit sixth if they had held out on both occasions, they instead find themselves eighth in the A-League with four league games left to go and will hope to put the recent disappointment behind them and end the five-game winless run to climb back towards the top half this weekend.
Team News
While Brisbane Roar's line may again be led by Stefan Scepovic and Carlo Armiento, their attack is heavily reliant on Jay O'Shea, who has netted seven of his side's 20 A-League goals so far this season.
Behind O'Shea in the free role, Taras Gomulka and Rahmat Akbari should partner up in the engine room, unless Nikola Mileusnic is brought in from the outset to offer more creativity through the midfield.
Green should again deploy a back three with Tom Aldred joined by Jordan Courtney-Perkins and Scott Neville in front of goalkeeper Jordan Holmes.
Newcastle Jets could come into the contest with an unchanged starting XI in a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Beka Mikeltadze again bound to play a key role in the attack after hitting his sixth league goal of the season last time out.
The forward should continue to operate on the left flank, alongside Trent Buhagiar and Kosta Grozos, in support of frontman Reno Piscopo, who returned to action in the Melbourne City draw after a month-long layoff.
Elsewhere, Brandon O'Neill and Angus Thurgate will again partner up at the base of midfield, while former Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson will continue to command the back line, likely partnering up alongside Matthew Jurman in the middle of the defence.
Brisbane Roar possible starting lineup:
Holmes; Neville, Aldred, Courtney-Perkins; Hore, Gomulka, Akbari, Brindell-South; O'Shea; Armiento, Scepovic
Newcastle Jets possible starting lineup:
Weier; Aquilina, Jenkinson, Jurman, Ingham; O'Neill, Thurgate; Grozos, Buhagiar, Mikeltadze; Piscopo
We say: Brisbane Roar 0-1 Newcastle Jets
Brisbane Roar have struggled throughout the season thus far, particularly going forward, and even against an out-of-sorts Newcastle Jets side, we do not see them having enough to muster a result this weekend.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Sam Varley
