The goals are flowing freely for Newcastle Jets import Emile Heskey, but the former England international isn’t basking in his own glory ahead of Saturday night’s A-League clash with Perth at nib Stadium.
Heskey has scored four goals in as many games for the Jets this season, including a brace in last week’s 2-1 triumph over Melbourne Victory.
The goal-scoring glut is in stark contrast to Heskey’s days in England, where he had a strike rate of one goal every 4.6 games in his time with Leicester City, Liverpool, Birmingham, Wigan and Aston Villa.
But the 34-year-old striker barely raised an eyebrow on Friday when praised about his good start at the Jets, saying he doesn’t care who scores the goals for Newcastle, just as long as someone gets the job done.
“It’ll come and it’ll go,” Heskey said of his prolific run since joining the A-League.
“As long as I keep performing well and keep working hard – goals is goals.
“Does it really matter who scores them?”
On the back of Heskey’s hot run, the Jets have won three games on the trot to surge to equal first on the ladder after four rounds.
Glory coach Ian Ferguson has urged his charges to clamp down on Heskey.
“We see, on occasions, he likes to be the one over the top,” Ferguson said.
“And then, there’s other times when they’re coming down the left and right-hand sides, and he sort of backs off and stays at the edge of the box.
“We need to make sure that when we’re marking Emile, we don’t give him too much room, because he’s big, strong and powerful, and gets on the end of things.”
Perth will be without midfielder Jacob Burns for at least three weeks after the skipper injured his quad at training on Wednesday.
Former Victory midfielder Nick Ward is the frontrunner to replace Burns, while Bas van den Brink will come in for the suspended Steve Pantelidis in defence.
Jets defender Scott Neville, who has recovered from a groin injury, said he was looking forward to taking on his former Glory teammates.
But he admitted it was a tough decision to leave his home-town club at the end of last season.
“I just felt like I needed to get out of my comfort zone and test myself as a footballer and as a person, being away from my family and friends,” Neville said.
“And I think it was a good move.”
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