Brebner: I wouldn’t be here without believing Victory can make Finals Series

Melbourne Victory coach Grant Brebner says he has absolute belief his side can climb the A-League table and push to sneak into the top six, after an encouraging 1-1 draw against Central Coast Mariners on Saturday night.

Victory’s season went from bad to worse on a seven game stretch which garnered one win and six losses leading into a Matchweek 14 clash with the Mariners – the top side on the A-League table. But encouraging signs shone through in the 1-1 draw at Central Coast Stadium.

Victory took a one-goal lead in the contest through Callum McManaman before conceding the advantage ten minutes later to a Marco Ureña strike on 30 minutes.

Proceeding to take a point from that position was a positive step for Brebner’s side, when assessing how Victory have coped in similar positions in recent games: the last two times Victory took a one-goal lead in an A-League game, they went on to lose 4-3 to Western United and 3-1 to Adelaide United.

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His side’s refusal to be beaten in a scenario which has sparked a Victory collapse in recent times gave Brebner plenty to be optimistic about in his post-match musings.

“I think in recent weeks we’ve had some tough times,” Brebner said.

“A club like Melbourne Victory want to come to any game and collect three points, but I like the fact that our league position suggests we shouldn’t be coming away with anything against a top of the table team.

“Yes, I think there’s a lot of positives we can take from that, and a fighting spirit is one of them.

“There’s players to come back into the team – starting 11 players.

“There’s lots to be positive around. If you’re asking that question absolutely, I think we can still climb this table and make finals.

If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be here.”

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Brebner continued: “It’s quite simple when you’re in our position. We need to show we want to play for this football club.

“We need to show a commitment, an enthusiasm, a desire, a want to get something out of the games. While I think we’ve shown that in certain patches in games, there’s always been little things that have crept up.

“Tonight, while again I’m not getting carried away with coming and getting a point, but there’s certain aspects of tonight where the fight, the determination, the not wanting to lose a game of football was very evident – that’s something we can be pleased with.”

Victory midfielder Jacob Butterfield spoke to FOX Sports in the aftermath of Victory’s 1-1 draw with the Mariners, outlining a number of positives his side can take from the result which snapped the losing run.

The midfielder believes injuries and individual mistakes have at times shrouded Victory’s periodically good patches of football throughout the season, and if they can string more consistent performances together better times will come.

“It has been a difficult season for us,” he said.

“Lots of things have gone against us. We have a new squad put together, we’ve had a lot of injury problems and we’ve made individual mistakes.

“But at at times throughout this season, let’s not forget, we’ve played some really good football and shown what potentially we could be capable of.

“There’s load of positive signs for us as a club, as a group of players.

We believe we can be a really good team in this league. We’ve had to learn a lot, we’re learning a lot, we’re trying to do the right things.

We know better results are going to come for us if we keep working hard like we did today.”