On Tuesday, Arthur Diles was thrust into the Melbourne Victory hot seat. On Saturday, the interim head coach oversaw his first Melbourne Derby.
It has been a whirlwind week for the experienced assistant, who has stepped up to the head coaching role after Patrick Kisnorbo’s shock departure from the 2023-24 Isuzu UTE A-League runners-up.
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In front of a blockbuster crowd at AAMI Park, Diles’ bow ended in a pulsating 1-1 draw with rivals Melbourne City after Roderick Miranda cancelled out Yonatan Cohen’s opener.
“The message was clear all week. There’s not much to change. The team’s doing well,” Diles – who joined Victory at the start of last season – told Network 10 post-game.
“It was just important the players didn’t get overawed by the occasion and the week. They did that well. They kept their heads.
“As the game went on and we built moment, when you have 20,000 behind you, that helped us.
“It’s been a big week and I think we’ve come out okay.”
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Victory were a threat from the outset in Melbourne, where the Christmas Derby fixture was played at a high tempo for almost the entire duration of the Round 9 contest.
Cohen put City ahead in the 16th minute before Miranda restored parity after the hour mark and Victory were unfortunate not to walk away with maximum points.
“I thought in patches we were great. Didn’t start as well as I would’ve liked,” Diles reflected.
“Didn’t control of the ball enough and become a little bit too transitional for my liking.
“Apart from that, as the game built on, I thought we got stronger and stronger.”
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He added: “I think we did enough (to win). We had some big chances. Overall, if there was one team that was going to win, it was probably us with all due respect to the opponent.”
Bruno Fornaroli made an instant impact off the bench for Victory and he almost claimed a stoppage-time winner for Diles’ side.
The veteran talisman had been out of favour under former boss Kisnorbo and after Saturday night’s game, looking ahead to the Big Blue against Sydney FC, the Socceroo told Network 10:” Nobody’s bigger than this club. No name is bigger than this club.
“The fans make this club so big.”
