Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat hasn’t given up hope of overhauling ladder leaders Sydney FC, saying there’s no need for his team to panic despite their two-match losing run.
Victory are now eight points adrift of the Sky Blues after following up their 3-0 loss to Wellington with a 2-1 loss to Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Saturday night.
The double setback has severely dented Victory’s chances of winning the Premiers’ Plate.
But with Victory to face off against Sydney twice in the last 11 rounds, Muscat believes there’s still time for his team to snatch top spot.
The first of those matches will come on Thursday night, when Victory host the championship favourites at Etihad Stadium
“I’ll never give up. It’s not in my nature,” Muscat said when asked whether top spot was now a bridge too far.
“I’ll make sure I surround myself with people of a like mind to myself.
“We won’t need any motivation next week. We’re at home. We’ll freshen up. It will be a good game of football.
“Prior to these two games we’d won six on the bounce, so I’m certainly not going to panic.”
Victory were 1-0 up against Glory following Besart Berisha’s 58th-minute penalty.
But goals to Nebojsa Marinkovic and Adam Taggart within the space of eight minutes secured all three points for Perth.
Marinkovic levelled the scores when he curled his 21m free-kick around the Victory wall.
Muscat was unhappy with the way the wall was set up for the free-kick, as well as several other bad decisions made by his players.
“We found a way to destruct and beat ourselves, because I thought we were the much better team on the night,” Muscat said.
“There were some poor decisions towards the end there when good decisions needed to be made under a little bit of pressure.
“The free-kick was just too easy.
“This is no disrespect to Perth, but we found a way to play them into the game. Simple as that.”
Victory made five changes to their starting XI against Perth, and they’re set to welcome back a host of big names against Sydney.
Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Jason Geria are available after serving their one-match bans, while Nick Ansell and Oliver Bozanic will be fresh after missing the trip to Perth.
Star midfielder Marco Rojas, who missed a golden chance to put Victory 2-0 ahead against Perth, will also be fresh after only coming on in the 64th minute.
MarkfromCroydon
Roar Pro
Musky's right. Our record is actually pretty good across the season so far, it's just that Sydney has been phenomenal. We also could've been a lot better off. First match in Brisbane, dropped 2 points basically at the final whistle, unlucky not to beat Sydney first time we played them (missed pen, missed easy chance for Rojas, Carney's handball goal), and unlucky not to beat perth first time around back in December (21 shots to 3). would've, Could've, should've I know, but just goes to show we haven't been too far off the mark, and in this league, you need to be on your game every match.
Pauly
Guest
And yet we don't see this domination in the NPL finals series.
punter
Guest
Exactly Buddy, I was thinking that after Holosko had the onside goal striked off for being offside. You have to take the good & bad decisions & a good team to not allow those decisions to affect the result. They are not 8 pts clear because of luck.
Aethelbert
Guest
Going by the form books, MVFC are third behind Perth Glory.
At work
Roar Rookie
It's certainly noticeable MF, when the FFA cup gets to the round of 32 and TV coverage starts we have seen the Vic teams consistently outperforming other member federation teams from other states. Geez I can't wait until the FFA cup rolls around again. I wish the A League teams would start in the round of 64.
Buddy
Guest
Yes, forums aren't notorious for producing truly objective comments and whenever a team dominates it seems that many people spend their time trying to pick holes or finding something negative about the situation. Most of this season we have repeatedly seen comments relating to the games that could have swung the other way. However, in all the years I have watched this sport, the side that takes out the competition appears to have won games when they shouldn't, received fortuitious penalties, the occasional own goal, the odd unlikely goal ..... all making fantastic points to argue/debate and to create jealousy amongst opponents.
AZ_RBB
Guest
The magnitude of this clash is reduced because of the 8 point gap. If this was "6 pointer" then it would be an enormous occasion. Even if MVFC were to win, 5 points is still a decent gap to mow down when you're talking about a team that has gone 16 rounds undefeated and hardly conceded many goals. Still would think this will draw 35k+ to Docklands.
Waz
Guest
It's the "ever played" bit that doesn't sound right, without even thinking about it too hard in R27 alone last year we had three games where four sides could actually win the Plate: City v Reds Victory v Roar Nix v WSW All three were potentially bigger than this and I'm sure there's others in history. This is a big game though, if Sydney win they're home and hosed imo so really looking forward to it
pete4
Guest
Perth are definitely a dark-horse for the Championship But yeah if SFC beat MV here you would think the Premiership is all but sealed
punter
Guest
Jamesb, you won't see too many on here giving SFC credit, but I don't think we care much. we are 8 pts care.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Michael Lynch @MickLynch_Age Victoria dominates FFA Cup, with NSW and Queensland trailing PFA study reveals http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/victoria-dominates-ffa-cup-with-nsw-and-queensland-trailing-pfa-study-reveals-20170120-gtvxld.html … via @theage
jamesb
Guest
The eight point gap between first and second is finally a true reflection of how well Sydney FC is doing this season. Good to see Perth making some sort of impression. I like to see the Jets getting a win over WSW. Perth and Jets playing finals would be great.
Buddy
Guest
Biggest this season maybe but even that relies on the fact they are sitting first and second rather than closeness, historical rivalry etc. The 8 point gap might suggest SFC might have a more casual/relaxed approach to the fixture even though they will want to ensure everyone knows they are currently "top dog". At the moment, the table is filled with teams that struggle with consistency except for league leaders and that makes the overall picture less enticing and judging by their on crowds SFC must be scratching their heads as to what they have to do to draw larger crowds?
Nemesis
Guest
Biggest club in Australia hosting the club that likes to think it's the biggest club in Australia at at time when they're both in form. Definitely the biggest Home & Away match for me. You don't have to agree. I wasn't in Australia at the time, but I heard Brisbane vs Central Coast was huge back in the day. The football world stopped when such giants clashed.
Waz
Guest
"Australia Day clash is shaping as the biggest H&A club football match ever played in Australia" ..... seriously?? How long have you been following the HAL, 16 weeks?
Nemesis
Guest
Australia Day clash is shaping as the biggest H&A club football match ever played in Australia. It's a shame both teams are not coming into the fixture undefeated in recent rounds, but Victory created enough against Perth to show they're not in a slump even though the performance against the Nix suggested otherwise. From next season, this clash will be broadcast LIVE on FTA Tv.