Adelaide United need to beat Melbourne Victory on Saturday night if they are serious about winning the Hyundai A-League title, according to Jimmy Jeggo.
The Reds haven’t defeated the Big V in five A-League meetings under Josep Gombau, drawing twice at home and losing three times on the road during the last two seasons.
This weekend fifth-placed Adelaide host Kevin Muscat’s men, who are two places but only one point ahead of them on the table, at Coopers Stadium.
And Jeggo, who defected to South Australia from Victory in the off-season, knows an overdue win for the Reds could serve as a psychological advantage ahead of a possible finals meeting between the teams.
“A lot of the boys are looking at it as an opportunity to really stamp our mark going into these last couple of rounds and into the finals … if you want to win the league, you need to win these types of games,” he said.
“That’s the way we’re looking at it.”
Jeggo believes his former club’s aggressive, attacking style is well-suited to nullifying Adelaide’s more patient, possession-based approach.
Nevertheless, the 23-year-old midfielder is confident the Reds will come out on top if they produce their best football on Saturday night.
“The way they play is a contrast to us and I think it matches up quite interestingly,” he said.
“We like to play out [from] the back. They’re all about pressing and hitting us on the counter-attack.
“There is going to be a lot of onus on us. If we play our game, the game’s in our hands. But we’ve got to be careful not to get caught out on the break.
“Those first two games I don’t think we played at our best. The key in this game is to get as close to our best as possible and I think that’ll be enough.”
