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Hunting an unlikely top-two finish, Sydney FC won't be letting their guard down when they visit A-League Men strugglers Newcastle.
Sydney FC will be treating their A-League Men clash with a struggling Newcastle as the latest in a series of 'do-or-die' missions.
On the home stretch towards the finals, the Sky Blues make the trip up the NSW coast for their third game in nine days when they face the Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
Ufuk Talay's charges have set their sights on a top-two finish, but have only four games left in the regular season to chase down the 11-point gap between them and second-placed Wellington, after the Phoenix lost 2-1 on Saturday to Central Coast.
At first glance, their mission seems straightforward enough.
With just four wins to their name this season, Newcastle have not managed to bag the three points in their last nine matches. They have gone two rounds without scoring a goal.
Robert Stanton's side sit last on the table, one point behind Western United and Perth after John Aloisi's side scored a 4-2 win over Macarthur FC, also on Saturday.
But defender Joel King is adamant Sydney won't be underestimating their opposition - especially after the Sky Blues conceded late in Wednesday's 1-1 draw with the Glory.
"Every game now is like a grand final to us," King told AAP.
"Perth, they're not going too well on the ladder either and they managed to grab a point against us.
"We have to go into the game fully focused. We can't take Newcastle lightly or else we won't get what we want out of the game."
Sydney will be without Jake Girdwood-Reich after the young midfielder was shown his second red card of the season for a foul Perth striker Adam Taggart.
On his second game back from a career-first suspension, Girdwood-Reich was again given his marching orders after VAR found he had denied Taggart a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Sydney, 1-0 up at the time, withstood a siege for almost an hour before Kaelan Majekodunmi equalised with a 72nd-minute header from a Riley Warland free-kick.
"We've had four send-offs this season and it's just the way we play. We want to be aggressive," coach Talay said on Friday.
"It's great that (being a player down) builds resilience, but we don't want to keep building resilience with 10 men. We can do it with 11.
"It's a great learning moment for Jakey, but I was disappointed at the end because we were quite comfortable when we had 11 men on the park."
In Sunday's other game, Adelaide United will hope to keep their flickering finals hopes alive when they travel to face Perth.
The Reds (25 points) are nine points outside the top six with five games to go, but the Glory can no longer make finals.
Perth (22) are 12 points behind sixth-placed Western Sydney (34) with four games left but cannot catch the Wanderers (10 wins) as they only have recorded five victories.
Wins are now the first tiebreaker, ahead of goal difference, if teams are level on points.
