Newcastle Jets vs Perth Glory Prediction: Sweet feeling for Pearman at McDonald Jones Stadium

Newcastle Jets thrashed Perth Glory 4-0 at HBF Park last month but David Zdrilic's charges can exact revenge on Saturday's hosts at McDonald Jones Stadium (06:00, TNT Sports 6) by beating the Jets and overtaking them in the Australian A-League Men's table, with the 11th and 12th-placed teams currently separated by just two points, albeit Rob Stanton's side have two games in hand.

Below is my Newcastle Jets vs Perth Glory prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Newcastle Jets made two signings this week, bringing in Tanzania international Charles M'Mombwa who had been a free agent since leaving Macarthur at the end of last season, and Japanese winger Kota Mizunuma from Yokohama F.Marinos. Both players have been added to Stanton's squad and could make their debuts on Saturday.

Two-goal forward Eli Adams is also back in the reckoning after missing his side's last two games with an injury but Dane Ingham (muscular), Aleksandar Susnjar (ankle), Oscar Fryer (knee), Jacob Dowse and Alex Nunes (both unspecified) are ruled out.

Football Odds

Perth Glory have themselves dipped into the Japanese market this month, adding not one, but two players from the East Asian nation. Yuto Misao, most recently on the books of J-League 1 side Kyoto Sanga, and Takuya Okamoto, who departed Shonan Bellmare to move down under, will boost the Glory's defensive options after shipping a league-high 35 goals from their first 14 games.

Okamoto hasn't been named in Saturday's squad but Misao has and the 33-year-old could be one of three debutants with fellow new arrivals Lachlan Wales and Pat Wood also hoping for their first minutes in their new purple colours. A-Leagues veteran Wales swapped Australia for South Korea in the off-season but has signed a short-term deal at the Glory after leaving Gyeongnam earlier this month, while 22-year-old forward Wood has joined on loan from ALM rivals Sydney.

However, 19-year-old Abdelelah Faisal, who featured in the closing stages of the Glory's last game, a 2-1 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers on January 14, has since swapped Perth for Gosford, where he will play for Central Coast Mariners.

Newcastle Jets vs Perth Glory Odds

Newcastle Jets are yet to win a league game at home this season but are unbeaten against Perth Glory since March 2021 and are 8/15 to take all three points from Saturday's fixture, giving Stanton's side an implied win probability of 65.2%, while the visitors are 4/1, or a 20% chance, to triumph for just the third time this term.

The Jets' victory over the Glory last month ended a bizarre run of five straight 2-2 draws between the two teams; you can back a return to a stalemate in this head-to-head at 3/1 this weekend, and another 2-2 scoreline at 12/1.

Newcastle's leading marksman, four-goal forward Ben Gibson, is 1/1 favourite in the anytime goalscorer market, followed by teammates Lachlan Rose and Justin Vidic (both 7/5), with last season's Golden Boot winner, Adam Taggart, first up for the visitors at 6/4.

Price Boosts - Both Teams to Score, 4+ Goals in the Match & Both Teams 4+ Corners @ 3/1 4/1

Perth blanked in December's reverse fixture, the fifth time they had failed to score in their opening eight ALM games this season, none of which they managed to win (L6, D2).

A week after that defeat to the Jets, though, the Glory got up and running with a 1-0 victory at Brisbane Roar, and their second win of the campaign came against Auckland (1-0) earlier this month. In six games since losing to the Jets, Zdrilic's side have blanked just twice, even scoring twice in a 3-2 defeat to Western United at HBF Park on January 3.

The shift hasn't been monumental - the Glory haven't rocketed up the table - but there have been clear improvements, both in performances and results, which should mean we see a closer contest between these two teams on Saturday.

The Jets have only kept two clean sheets this season - both coming against the bottom two clubs, Perth and Brisbane - and 58 per cent (seven) of their 12 league games have seen both teams score, including their last two (3-1 defeats to Macarthur and Western United). BTTS - Yes has landed in four of their last five matches, and that selection was a winner last time out for the Glory as they lost 2-1 to the Wanderers.

Last month's head-to-head broke the habit of a lifetime as the Glory's failure to score denied a ninth straight game of both teams finding the net, and it was the first time since October 2022 that the score hadn't finished 2-2.

With Perth gaining a bit more confidence in recent weeks and the Jets off the back of consecutive defeats, I think we'll see a return to both teams scoring in this fixture on Saturday.

It's certainly a game that has produced its fair share of goals, with the last six throwing up exactly four, and there have been over 3.5 total goals in eight of the previous nine meetings between these two clubs.

Meanwhile, three of Newcastle's last four games, including their most recent two, have seen four goals scored.

The final leg of this Price Boost requires both teams to take at least four corners, which was the case in both matches last year. Newcastle and Perth took five apiece at HBF Park last month and at the same venue in March last year, the hosts won four and the visitors eight.

Newcastle's games this season are averaging 11.5 corners per game (11.6 at home, 11.4 away) while Perth's are averaging 10.1 (11.6 at home, 8.2 away).

Both teams have taken at least four corners in four of the Jets' five home matches while the Glory's last away game saw them fall one corner short as they only managed three compared to Sydney's eight.

Anytime Goalscorer - Jaylan Pearman (PER) @ 18/5

Taggart is the obvious candidate to back in the anytime goalscorer market for Perth this weekend having struck the latest of his four efforts in this season's competition in his side's last game against the Wanderers.

However, in my opinion, the value lies with 18-year-old forward Jaylan Pearman, who burst onto the ALM scene earlier this month, assisting Taggart on his league debut against Western United on January 3 before scoring his first senior goal eight days later against Auckland, which proved to be the winner, in only his third competition appearance.

Pearman didn't manage to follow up that strike with another against the Wanderers but he wasn't shy to shoot at HBF Park, racking up four efforts, one of which produced a save from WSW goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas.

The teenager has registered a shot on target in three of his four ALM outings so far, demonstrating accuracy with the ball at his feet, and as something of an unknown quantity still, he could cause the Jets a few problems this weekend.

Offers

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