Their opponents may have a new name and strip but Melbourne Victory are expecting the same down and dirty A-League derby when they clash with Melbourne City on Saturday night.
The local rivals will do battle at Etihad Stadium for the first time since Heart became the cashed-up City and recruited Spanish superstar David Villa to their ranks.
Victory skipper Mark Milligan said that apart from the obvious, little would change with the battle to be top dog in town always hard-fought.
“Derby week is always very exciting and I don’t think their name change will add to that,” he said.
“You want to do well in the derby because you want to be the top team in Melbourne.
“I don’t think their situation changes our mind-set; it’s always been that we wanted to be the main club in Melbourne and it will be a little more satisfying now knowing the backing that they do have if we can get a good result.”
The teams have drawn four times each and posted four wins apiece.
Victory will go into the match in second spot on the competition ladder with a win and a draw last round to Adelaide United while City have drawn both their matches.
Lowly Heart shocked Victory with a 4-0 drubbing in their last meeting last A-League season in March.
The Socceroos defender said although City now had a vastly different line-up that result was still on his players’ minds.
“Not that any extra motivation is needed but it will be in the back of your mind,” he said.
“When we’ve played them and they haven’t been in the greatest of form they seem to play their best football on derby day.”
Milligan said he team would play their own game as they did against Adelaide rather than go after Villa and in-form Irishman Damien Duff.
“Obviously those players are very, very dangerous but I think we need to combat them in our structure.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll approach it as we did on the weekend when we decided to stick to our structure.
“It’s our home game and we’re going to want to go into it and stamp our style on the match.”
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
Mathew Leckie played a pivotal part in Melbourne City claiming an 8-nil win; playing a role in several of his team's goals.
The loser of the Sydney Derby will be under immense pressure entering the final three matches of the season.
Anthony Caceres is a player with immense talent and has a fantastic work rate, broke the deadlock against the Mariners in the 74th minute.
Under-pressure Western Sydney coach Marko Rudan has failed to front up for his post-match press conference after a 7-0 thrashing from Melbourne City, the…
Round 19 was an interesting weekend of football with no draws, 19 goals in six matches, two five-goal games on Sunday and for the…
