Prolific Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson remains in doubt for Saturday’s crucial away trip to Brisbane with coach Jim Magilton saying the experienced marksman will need to prove he is over the hamstring tightness which saw him miss training earlier in the week.
Prolific Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson remains in doubt for Saturday’s crucial away trip to Brisbane with coach Jim Magilton saying the experienced marksman will need to prove he is over the hamstring tightness which saw him miss training earlier in the week.
Although goalless in his past five matches, Thompson remains one of Victory-s most important players and his absence would be a huge blow to their chances of upsetting the defending champions at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
“We’ll have to see,” Magilton said when asked of Thompson’s chances of playing. “He’ll have a jog and again we’ll assess him. There’s still 48 hours to go. He’s desperate to play but we won’t take any chances.”
“I don’t like dealing with gut feelings, I’d rather hand it over to the experts in the end. If they feel he is ok then, it will be down to me whether he plays or not.”
Victory secured just their fifth, but arguably their most important win of the season last week when they upset Central Coast 2-1 at AAMI Park and Magilton feels it could be a momentum changer for the club which has struggled to put strong performances together all season.
“I’d like us to go on a run obviously. We played well last week, we deserved to win the game I feel. We’ve just got to make sure that we are at the same sort of intensity going into this game, recognising that Brisbane is a tough proposition at home.
“We have to go there and withstand whatever they throw at us and then come out with some of the qualities we showed last week. I’d like to build that momentum.
“They set the standard last week, they raised the bar and we have to do it again.”
The aspect which most pleased Magilton in last week’s match was his team’s ability to retain possession of the ball. He feels that aspect is of even greater importance against Brisbane, who are renowned as the best passing and possession side in the league.
“They (the Roar) go into every game believing they can win the game, he said. “They’ve got a system of play which suits the players and they’ve been excellent all year.
“Their ball retention is very good. They’ve got good rotation with good players,” he said.
“I believe we’ve good players. I believe the players we brought into the football club are good players and I believe we are starting to get the rewards for everything we do on the training ground.
“Our performance was good and our ball retention was good (last week) and we are going to have to be that good again. Because if we give the ball away we mightn-t see it for a while.”
A win could see Victory jump into the top six for the first time in Magilton’s reign.
