It’s hard to imagine anyone at Melbourne Victory having regrets with their 6-0 grand final triumph over Adelaide United, but one man does.
A decade on from Victory’s historic triumph, striker Danny Allsopp has told a new documentary series that missing out on scoring in the decider will stick with him.
One of the club’s all-time greats, Allsopp was a chief reason Victory were in the grand final after scoring 12 goals through the season.
The Socceroo striker would be awarded the club’s best and fairest and the players’ player of the year gongs at the end-of-season awards.
But as Archie Thompson tallied an astonishing five goals, Allsopp missed out on the biggest night in Victory’s history.
It was such a relief when we were 3 or 4 nil up and they had 10 players and we knew the game was over,” he said.
“I took my foot off the accelerator. I felt like all the season, what we’d worked for, we’d achieved.
“I thought let’s enjoy knocking the ball round here, which is what we were doing.
“I hit the post and looking back I see how casually I did it instead of really going to score. I’d switched off.
“Looking back it’s one of my big regrets in my career. I wish I had have gone really hard to score myself.”
The former Manchester City man made the revelation in an interview with the club to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the result.
The series features interviews with each Victory players involved with the match, including then-captain and now-coach Kevin Muscat and Thompson, who netted five times
United – which boasted now Melbourne City coach Michael Valkanis in its 2007 grand final line-up – return to Melbourne on Saturday night to face Victory once more.
Allsopp, who finished up a second stint with Victory in 2012, said Thompson deserved the acclaim from his five-goal haul.
“We (Archie and I) joked about it … I said ‘you might score a hat-trick tonight,” Allsopp said.
“Archie had one of those games which I’d never seen before. The ball was like a magnet to him.
“The margin could have been bigger.”
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