Newcastle’s Culina still hopeful of top-two spot

Newcastle Jets coach Branko Culina is still hopeful that his side can finish in the top two on the A-League table this season.

The Jets have gone on an unprecedented run in the past two months, winning six of its eight matches to climb to fourth on the table and after checking the fixture for upcoming matches, Culina believes Newcastle can push their way upwards in the next four weeks.

“Sydney still has to play Perth, us and Melbourne, so anything's possible," he said.

"Melbourne had a great win but play some tough teams and so do Gold Coast, so anything's possible.

"Wellington, don't count them out. They're doing well and they have games at home.

"Never say never but it's fair to say that Wednesday's (2-0 loss to Gold Coast) result didn't help our cause.”

Culina admitted that getting two wins from three matches within six days was a decent result and praised his side for bouncing back the way they did by defeating Brisbane Roar 2-0 away on Saturday night.

"We would have liked nine but let's face it, it was always going to be tough," he added.

"The Melbourne game made it much tougher for us, because we used a lot of energy in that game and on the night we weren't good enough against Gold Coast.

"But credit to the players, they bounced back well with only a couple of days to recover and they were very good, particularly in the second half, when we made a few adjustments."