Melbourne Victory host the Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park in Melbourne to kick of Round 23 of the A-League. Join The Roar for live scores from 7:40pm (AEDT) and leave your comments below.
With the season drawing to the business end, these two sides find themselves playing with two distinctly different motivations.
The Victory are four points shy of Wellington (who face a tough test against third placed Sydney FC this round) who sit on top of the A-League ladder. They’ll be confident of a extending their goal difference on the Phoenix with a strong win tonight, and hopefully closing the gap to just one point by the end of the round.
The boys from the Central Coast have managed just the four wins so far this season, but remarkably that is still good enough to seem them sit in eighth place above the Jets and Wanderers. With finals football out of reach, they are playing for nothing but pride to close out the season and will take some heart from every result they can manage.
Putting some more space between them and the season’s true cellar-dwellers would also be a confidence boost looking towards next season.
It will be a tough ask for the Mariners to scrounge a win on the road however, facing up against a side that has strongly held the wood over them in their most recent meetings – Victory will be looking to secure their fourth straight win against the Mariners tonight for the first time in A-League history.
But Mariners should draw some confidence from their strong showings when playing the Victory in Melbourne. Despite not earning the win, they have managed to find the back of the net on their past seven trips.
The Mariners can also look forward to facing a depleted Victory outfit, on account of players away on international duty. The question is whether the Mariners will be able to take advantage of this?
Prediction:
The Mariners will give themselves a chance against one of the premiership favourites tonight, but finding a win in Melbourne appears out of reach.
Victory to win 2-1.
Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:40pm (AEDT). If you are following the action live be sure to share your thoughts on the match in the comments below.
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