Melbourne City has long been a club associated with three key values: mediocrity, inconsistency and underachievement.
Even with the much hyped City Football Group takeover in 2014, City have remained true to these three traits, leading to some justified groaning from supporters.
Fan pages are littered with the slogan ‘JVS out’ and there seems an uneasy fascination and expectation that marquee man Aaron Mooy will single-handedly drag the club out of its present state.
This season has done little to ease concerns – until the last fortnight. A 2-all draw with Sydney FC and a breathtaking 3-2 victory over the Wanderers has given fans the right to be optimistic.
The draw against the Sky Blues, without Mooy and Erik Paartalu, showed plenty of character. Despite Sydney dominating play, City twice took the lead, before holding on for the draw in the face of relentless pressure. Such a result would not have been believable at the start of this season.
For the Wanderers fixture, City came up against a side who hadn’t been beaten in ten games, and who swatted them aside 3-0 in their last meeting. Surprisingly, Melbourne took a 2-0 lead and despite having that clawed back by a determined Wanderers outfit, they had the desire and fight to re-take the lead and snatch all three points. A previous Heart/City side would not have had the mental or physical strength to keep fighting.
While the season is far from over, City look the real deal. The next challenge will be using these gritty results as a basis to regularly compete with the best.
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