Melbourne Victory striker Danny Allsopp denied on Tuesday the Hyundai A-League club has a discipline problem following his attacking partner Archie Thompson becoming the club’s fourth player to be shown a red card this season.
Thompson was sent off for swearing at referee Matthew Breeze during last Saturday’s shock 1-0 loss at Newcastle – joining keeper Michael Theoklitos and foreign imports Carlos Hernandez and Ney Fabiano in the sin bin this season.
The Victory decided on Tuesday not to appeal Thompson’s two match ban while Fabiano also still has two matches to serve on his lengthy ban for spitting.
The loss of Thompson means Allsopp is likely to have to play as a lone striker – with support from attacking midfielders Tom Pondeljak and Carlos Hernandez – in Saturday night’s blockbuster home clash against arch-rivals Sydney FC at Telstra Dome.
Another loss for Melbourne will see Ernie Merrick’s team surrender top place on the Hyundai A-League ladder to either Adelaide or Sydney and Allsopp admits Thompson’s moment of madness has made life tough for the Victory and for himself this week.
“I will have to work hard (as a lone striker) and obviously Archie is a big loss for us this week,” Allsopp said on Tuesday.
“But we are fortunate to be in a good position with our depth this season and Carlos and Tommy are capable are playing up front.”
Allsopp vowed the Victory would still go on the attack against a Sydney side that has problems of its own with defenders Tony Popovic (hamstring) and Iain Fyfe (suspended) to miss the trip south.
“We will try to go out and play the same way (without Thompson) and go out and attack this week at home and put on a good show.”
The experienced striker said morale remained high in the Victory camp despite the string of red cards, denying the club had a discipline problem amongst its players.
“We know we have to improve in that area and it’s something we will work on,” he said.
“No doubt it has hurt us this season and we have played a couple of games with less than 11 players on the pitch.”
“But we haven’t got any major cultural problems with our discipline.”
“We have got the least number of yellow cards in the league this year so I don-t think we have got any major problems.”
But Allsopp said Victory coach Ernie Merrick has addressed the players this week about the need to avoid costly and unnecessary suspensions.
“He (Merrick) has addressed the situation and we will just leave it at that,” he said.
“We have talked amongst ourselves about it but we are not blowing it out of proportion.”
