THERE are few fiercer competitors in the A-League than Newcastle Jets' hired gun Beka Mikeltadze. Even fewer boast a greater drive to win.
"Make no mistake, Beka is not happy when he is not scoring goals," Jets coach Arthur Papas said. "When he is not happy, it is very obvious."
However, there is one thing that the steely-eyed Georgian puts a greater price on than goals - wins.
In a rare glitch, stand-in skipper Mikeltadze blazed a penalty high in the Jets' 2-0 loss to Macarthur at Campbelltown a month ago.
His miss, on the stroke of half-time, came two minutes after Al Hassan Toure had given the Bulls the lead.
The Jets had produced arguably their best half of football with no reward. Any air the visitors had evaporated.
Newcastle return to Campbelltown Stadium on Saturday, with kick-off put back an hour to 6pm to accommodate the expected hot temperature.
"If you know Beka, he is up for every game," Papas said. "There is no need to find ways to motivate him in an extra way. That is him intrinsically. I'm sure that [missed penalty] would have hurt him. It was a key moment in the game."
Mikeltadze has responded with two goals in the past three games, including a penalty, taken with the precision of a sniper, in the 2-1 triumph over Melbourne Victory last round.
"Last week, we had a penalty and we backed him and he scored," Papas said. "He set up the other goal. He contributes so much beyond just scoring goals in this team."
The goal took Mikeltadze's season tally to four - well short of the 13 he netted last season.
"I feel that we are close to seeing the best of Beka," Papas said. "It's hard because ultimately he is judged on how many goals he scores. I don't judge him just on that. I judge him on what he is like between the boxes, how hard he works when we haven't got the ball, how many players he brings into the game.
"Make no mistake. He wants to be scoring goals. It is important that he is scoring goals. It is important that he still does the rest of the work he does for this team. Hopefully he can kick on for the rest of the season."
Since the loss to Macarthur on January 8, the Jets have gone five games unbeaten - netting 10 goals in the process.
"We are in a different spot compared to that stage in the season," Papas said.
"We have improved in terms of outcomes. If you go back to the Macarthur game, I thought in the first half, that was some of our best football all season. We just didn't punish them. It is really pleasing when you see a lot of hard wok come off in the box in particular."
The Jets, in seventh spot on 21 points, could jump to fifth with a win on Saturday.
"It would mean a lot to the players and to all of us because of the amount of hard work that goes in," Papas said. "There are still 10 games to go, it is a long way away. We don't want to get too caught up on a ladder position. It takes focus away from what is really important - strong performances, improving the way we play our football, scoring more goals. That is what I am searching for. We need to improve our performances and keep growing."
After making the most of a late call-up to the XI with a match-winner, Kosta Grozos will again cover for Reno Piscopo, who faces up to four weeks out with an adductor issue.
"Kosta came in and took his chance last week. He has to keep performing," Papas said. "Kosta is very intelligent and good at getting between the lines. The layer that is probably different is driving with the ball and beating players on the turn, areas like that.
"Kosta gives us other qualities. His running capacity is outstanding. He is one of the fittest in the team and he does have quality to score goals when he gets in and around the box. He has finally been able to show that. I have been seeing it for a while."
Manabu Saito impressed in 30 minutes off the bench in the win over Victory and Papas is tempted to start the Japanese winger.
"Manabu is a different winger to what we had in terms of getting into one-v-one situations, passing into the box and trying to make forward runs in smaller spaces.
"We can see he definitely has quality. He is fitter now and is ready to start. I think he has 60-75 minutes in him now. He has been so diligent with the way he has looked after himself and how he has fitted in here after not playing for a while. He is definitely in contention."
MIle Sterjovski has taken over the reins at the Bulls from Dwight Yorke, who resigned three weeks ago.
Papas said the Bulls had made adjustments under the new boss.
"They are a little bit more aggressive with their defensive line," he said. "They want the ball a bit more than they did before. They were pretty reliant on counter attacking under Dwight."
"They are a good team and had a good result against Wellington last week. They will be buoyed by that.
"What is important is how we go about it."
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