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.”
Knightblues
Guest
Please wake up A-League and put all these big attended games on their own separate weekend, and have them all on Friday night so they are all on FTA.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I'm sure the club informed members the stadium was being reconfigured for all 5 matches at Docklands. Here's the article from today's Herald Sun: "Melbourne derby set to sell out with record 47,000 fans expected to converge on Etihad Stadium" http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/melbourne-derby-set-to-sell-out-with-record-47000-fans-expected-to-converge-on-etihad-stadium/story-fnk6pqhd-1227097972413
Kyle Stewart
Roar Pro
I thought they werent doing it for the derby fuss?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
The stadium is being reconfigured to suit a rectangular playing arena, so the maximum capacity is 47k. Docklands stadium management say ticket sales are on track for a sold out event. If we get 47k, it will be the biggest crowd at Docklands for any club sporting event this year - bigger than any AFL, or BBL match. Only the Jehovah's Witness conference will have attracted more people!
Rodger King
Guest
It would be great to see Villa score a hat trick and DD a brace. Hopefully they will put on a performance similar to the Sydney derby with over 50k turning up.