Newcastle skipper Thompson urges teammates to push harder

Newcastle Jets captain Matt Thompson has urged his teammates to not rest on their laurels after securing their finals spot on the weekend.

Despite the Jets’ Round 26 match against the Central Coast Mariners at Bluetongue Stadium being postponed until tonight due to poor weather on Saturday, they managed to book their spot in the top six after seventh-placed Brisbane Roar and eight-placed North Queensland Fury both lost.

But Thompson, who is departing Newcastle for new club Melbourne Heart next season, plans to experience as much success as possible before he moves on and has targeted fourth spot on the A-League table.

"We finally realised last night that we're in the semis, but it doesn't stop there," Thompson said.

"We don't want to be sixth and going to Gold Coast or Wellington or wherever we have to go, and have to pull off a great result away, which is something we haven't done this year.

"We want to make it as easy as possible for ourselves, and that's obviously with a home semi; we want that fourth spot."

Jets coach Branko Culina echoed the captain’s sentiments, saying: "We've now secured that finals spot, and we can really focus on playing good football on Monday and being in a good position to get that fourth spot.

"The job's not finished for us . . . we've got two games to go, we've got a genuine chance of making that fourth spot, and we'll give it everything we have."