Newcastle coach Craig Deans says his team simply cannot afford to waste chances as they aim to bounce back from last week's A-League loss against Wellington in Adelaide on Friday.
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The Jets' five-game unbeaten streak came to an end as the Phoenix snatched a 2-0 win at McDonald Jones Stadium last Sunday, despite having 18 shots to just five in the match.
Deans says the profligacy was a throwback to earlier in the season when Newcastle played well but wound up losing their first four games of the season.
He says it's something his team has to address as they head to South Australia to face the Reds at Coopers Stadium.
"It's taking our chances when we get them," Deans said.
"The games we lost at the start of the year, we obviously had more than enough chances in all those games to win and same thing on Sunday against Wellington.
"It's not that we don't create chances, is just in the games where we don't take them we're getting punished and we need to try and make sure that doesn't happen again."
Deans has resisted the temptation to rush back either Jason Hoffman (groin) or Ramy Najjarine (ankle), with both likely to return for next week's clash with Sydney FC.
Adelaide coach Carl Veart however has a near full-strength squad to choose from with Ryan Strain, Tomi Juric and Michael Jakobsen all named to make their returns from injury while Olyroo Al Hassan Toure has been included in the squad.
The Reds defeated Western Sydney 3-2 in a thriller at Bankwest Stadium last weekend to make it two wins on the spin and Veart is hopeful his team is set to go on a run of good results.
"We started the season like this and then we had that little break and we struggled to find our feet again," Veart said.
"It's going to take time with the squad that we've got.
"That's why it's so important that we need the full squad available and we've got that now so looking forward to having a good run."
STATS THAT MATTER
* Newcastle's next A-League goal will be the club's 500th in the competition. If it comes on Friday it'll also be their 50th against Adelaide.
* The Jets have lost just once in their past eight away matches, winning four and drawing three.
* Adelaide have conceded more than one goal in each of their past five matches, their joint-longest run without keeping an opponent to one goal or fewer.
Australian Associated Press
