Kevin Muscat says Melbourne Victory owe their supporters a performance against Sydney FC after suffering a painful defeat to the Sky Blues on Australia Day.
Kevin Muscat says Melbourne Victory owe their supporters a performance against Sydney FC after suffering a painful defeat to the Sky Blues on Australia Day.
Victory went down 5-0 at home to their arch-rivals at Etihad Stadium in January, a second successive thrashing by that scoreline after also being thumped away to Wellington Phoenix.
The two sides meet again on Saturday night in what is Victory’s last home game of the regular season.
When asked if his team must repay their fans for that nightmare display, Muscat said: “Without doubt, of course.”
“The one thing I can remember from the whole night was leaving the stadium and feeling how badly we let the fans down.
“Having said that our fans come here with an expectation every week. This week is certainly no different. It’s our last home game, and it’s a game both teams are desperate to take three points (from), for different reasons.
“We want to send our fans home with a smile on their face.”
Fit-again Adama Traore will return at left-back for the match, although Nick Ansell will be sidelined again.
Pablo Contreras is expected to line up at centre-back alongside Adrian Leijer, but versatile skipper Mark Milligan also spent a part of training on Friday in defence as a contingency in case the Chilean is forced to pull out.
“Pablo has been struggling a little bit and I wanted to make sure we’ve got some options if he’s no good or if he does start and can’t finish the game,” Muscat said.
Tom Rogic is also expected to be dropped after some disappointing performances in recent weeks, with Muscat attributing his downturn in form to fitness issues.
“When we confirmed that Tom was coming we knew that a period would come where, depending on what sort of (work) load he have, it’d be difficult for him, in terms of his conditioning,” he said.
“He’s probably at that period now. There’s other information that we’re privy too as well in terms of his body.”
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