Emerton remains upbeat

Brett Emerton believes Sydney FC’s embarrassing home loss to Newcastle Jets last weekend was the wake-up call they needed.

Sydney have slipped out of the A-League’s top six for the first time since the early rounds of the season following their heavy 5-2 capitulation against the Jets at home last Sunday.

It was easily one of the most disappointing performances of the season and came just days after the club announced that coach Vitezslav Lavicka will leave Sydney at the end of the current campaign to return to Europe.

Emerton, who missed the Jets clash with a hamstring strain, says talk the impending departure of the coach could affect the side’s title chances for the rest of the season is off the mark.

While admitting he had never encountered such a situation during his time playing in Europe, the Socceroos star is adamant it will have a positive impact on the side, with the playing group full of respect for their coach and eager to send him out on good terms.

“It is a unique situation and not one which I’ve come across in my career so far,” Emerton, who is back in the side for Saturday night’s clash with Perth Glory, said on Thursday.

“I don’t think it will affect the team’s performance because I think, as a group of players, we want to achieve something this year.”

“It doesn’t matter who was our manager, we would be going out there and giving 100 per cent each and every time.”

“We respect the manager, so we want to send him off in the right way.”

If the Sky Blues are to give their manager a good send off it means they will have to at least work their way back into the top six over the last seven games of the season, starting with Saturday night’s clash with the Glory at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Emerton regards the visit of Perth as Sydney’s most important game of the season, with the opportunity to restore some battered confidence and forget the nightmare of the Newcastle match.

“We’ve dropped out of the top six now but maybe it’s the wake-up call we needed,” he said.

“Thankfully we’ve still got seven games to go in the season and plenty of time to turn it around.”

“Hopefully, like Perth have been able to do, we can go on a run, finish in the top six and go into the finals in good form.”

Sydney will be without skipper Terry McFlynn (suspended) and striker Mark Bridge (ankle injury) against the Glory, with Emerton certain to start after shrugging off his hamstring problem.