Sydney captain Terry McFlynn says confidence within the Sky Blues side is at an all-time high ahead of their Hyundai A-League elimination final showdown with Wellington on Friday night.
Sydney captain Terry McFlynn says confidence within the Sky Blues side is at an all-time high ahead of their Hyundai A-League elimination final showdown with Wellington on Friday night.
The Sky Blues have had to battle hard to make the play-offs this season, needing a 3-2 win over Newcastle Jets last week to clinch a place in the top six.
But McFlynn, who will play his 150th game for Sydney on Friday, has warned against writing off his team’s chances at Westpac Stadium.
“There is a lot of character in the team. We’ve shown that throughout the course of the season,” he said.
“When people have doubted us and asked questions of us we’ve always stood up and been answerable for our performances.”
“In the last three or four weeks the performances have been really good. We’ve been turning performances into results. We’ll be looking to do the same on Friday night.”
If Sydney are to repeat the success of 2009/10, when they completed the double, then they will have to do it the hard way by winning on the road.
No-one outside of the top two has ever won the Hyundai A-League title but McFlynn believes anything is possible.
“Our away form has been good this season,” he said. “We still have the chance of a home semi next week if Melbourne Heart can beat Perth. But ultimately we’ve got to win every game to win the league.”
“There is a strong belief in the group. Confidence is at an all-time high this season. We’ll keep believing in what we do, as we have done all season, and hopefully that will continue to April 22.”
Sydney have lost all three previous games against Wellington this season, although in last month’s match at Allianz Stadium some better finishing would have seen them wrap up the points by half-time. Instead it was a rare headed goal by Paul Ifill that got the Phoenix home.
Since then the Sky Blues have notched draws against Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Heart and wins against Melbourne Victory and the Jets.
“That game (against Wellington) was the start of the little run we went on,” said McFlynn.
“It gave us a bit of confidence for the games following that. We’ve always analysed performances more than results. If we kept focusing on the performance we knew the results would come. Thankfully they have come at the right time of the season for us.”
But coach Vitezslav Lavicka concedes his side will still be underdogs on Friday even though the Phoenix have lost their last two outings against Victory and the Mariners.
“We are not favourites because we have played them three times during the season and we didn’t win,” said the coach. “But we have a clear intention to be successful and win the game.”
“The last three or four games we’ve had quite good performances as a team and we’ve picked up the good results. The team’s confidence has lifted.”
“We are coming here humble but with the intention of getting a good result.”
