THEY say a week is a long time in football, and for the Newcastle Jets, the past fortnight has proved an eternity.
Two weeks, or to be more precise 15 days, was how long the A-League champions had to wait for a chance to atone for one of the darkest nights in the club's brief history.
Jets coach Gary van Egmond remembers his team's 5-0 thrashing by Melbourne at Telstra Dome in round three on August 29 as a "very un-Newcastle-like performance".
It was a result that equalled the club's worst loss, against Queensland in round 20 of the first A-League campaign, and revived bleak memories of the early stages of season two before coach Nick Theodorakopoulos was sacked.
Egos were bruised. A bitter pill had been collectively swallowed.
Van Egmond told his players in no uncertain terms that, less than a month into their title defence, they had reached the crossroads of their season.
They had two weeks to stop the rot thanks to the extended break caused by international scheduling and the ensuing round-four home game against Sydney FC on Saturday night would be a turning point.
"If we lose this game, we're eight points behind the leaders," he warned.
Van Egmond got the reaction he wanted against Sydney, if not the result.
When referee Peter O'Leary blew full-time, neither team had scored, but both sides had slugged it out in a contest of high intensity.
The never-say-die Jets of last season were back, and most agreed they were unlucky not to earn their first win of the season.
"We lost 5-0 in the previous game," van Egmond said.
"I remember when I first took over [as head coach in October 2006], the first words someone said to me were that they felt embarrassed to walk down the street in a Newcastle shirt.
"The Melbourne game was probably the first time since then that we've had that same feeling, which is something we definitely weren't happy about and wanted to right.
"It was all about the response. We didn't get the result we wanted [against Sydney] but the response was fantastic.
"We can definitely build on that and the way that we played for next week [against Queensland at Suncorp Stadium on Friday]."
Van Egmond was optimistic that his revamped team, who started without skipper Jade North and featured a new-look back four, had taken the right turn at the crossroads.
"The effort was good, the attitude was good and everything we spoke about improved," he said.
"But now we've got to work on our shape a little bit better in the final third our final pass, a little bit of silk.
"It's now a matter of being able to back that up and build on it.
"If we can stick together and stay injury-free and suspension-free, I think we can really build on that."
Van Egmond thought long and hard about his defensive formation after Newcastle conceded eight goals in their previous two games.
With left back Adam D'Apuzzo suspended and North suffering from a virus he contracted while overseas representing the Socceroos, the coach was forced to manufacture a stopgap backline.
New recruit Daniel Piorkowski was rushed in as a central defender, alongside Jobe Wheelhouse, who is more accustomed to playing in the midfield or as a striker.
Matt Thompson, meanwhile, dropped back from midfield to left back, and stand-in skipper Adam Griffiths moved forward to the middle of the park.
Between them they kept Sydney's star-studded strike force of John Aloisi, Steve Corica, Mark Bridge and Alex Brosque contained, and at the other end of the pitch, Joel Griffiths, Edmundo Zura, Song Jin-hyung and James Holland were creating scoring opportunities.
"We had to ensure the defensive side of things worked well, and maybe with a little bit more luck we would have got the three points," van Egmond said.
"But to Sydney's credit, they defended well."
Newcastle's improved physical performance not surprisingly coincided with the return of Adam Griffiths, who missed the Melbourne loss with a calf injury.
Griffiths, in his captaincy debut, was a constant menace to Sydney's attacking threats, and van Egmond said he "added some starch and presence", especially at set pieces.
Griffiths agreed that a fortnight of soul-searching had provided Newcastle with the motivation for an "intense" performance.
"We had something to prove," he said. "We got beaten 5-0 and we wanted to rectify that.
"The team was very disappointed that we didn't get the three points."
Disappointed, perhaps, but bolstered by their new-found resolve; the real Newcastle Jets appear to be back. Hopefully they are here to stay.