Bridge hopes to stay a Jet

SPORTAL

By: Adam Lucius

Grand final hero Mark Bridge has expressed hope the Newcastle Jets will repay him with a new contract once celebrations in the Steel City have subsided.

Bridge scored the only goal of a tense grand final to hand his side a 1-0 win over a shattered Central Coast before a big crowd at the SFS on Sunday night.

He now hopes to stay in the city and continue with the Jets despite his exit, reportedly to Sydney, already signed, sealed and almost delivered.

With good mate Joel Griffiths flanking him at the post-match press conference - jokingly offering to act as his agent - Bridge revealed he had not given up hope of remaining.

"Yeah of course. I wanted to stay before this. It's a great team, a great bunch of blokes," Bridge said when asked whether the grand final win had made him more determined not to leave.


"But no (contract) talk tonight - just drink."

Bridge has often been at the receiving end of criticism from Jets fans as his form wavered during the season.

But with his name now indelibly linked to Newcastle's first-ever national football title, Bridge is suddenly the crowd favourite.

"They (Newcastle fans) have been good the last couple of weeks. The odd person has given a boo, but I take it as a compliment that they want me to stay rather than go," he said.

Bridge showed a goal-scorer's instinct to steal the ball from a stumbling Tony Vidmar on half-way, race towards the penalty box and let fly with an unstoppable shot past Danny Vukovic in the 64th minute.

It proved to be the game breaker.

Replaying the goal, the uncomplicated striker explained: "Vidmar sort of stuffed up on halfway."

"I don’t know what happened - I think he slipped - and I was running towards the goal and saw (Nigel) Boogaard standing in the way, so I thought if I hit it sweet and bend it in that corner he's (Vukovic) got no chance."

"Lucky for me it came off good and went in."

"It feels great scoring (and) in a grand final the feeling is times 10."

"It's every kid's dream to do it on such a big stage. It feels amazing."

"Everyone doubted us at the start of the season. I think we were tipped to come seventh or eighth."

"It feels great - we've won the league."

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Artical source http://sportal.co.nz/football-news-display/bridge-hopes-to-stay-a-jet-43766