Melbourne Victory skipper Kevin Muscat says luck played no part in his team’s run to its second Hyundai A-League Premier’s Plate win in three seasons.
Second on the ladder heading into the final round, the Victory managed to leapfrog Adelaide United thanks to their 2-0 win over Wellington on Friday night, with the Reds’ 1-0 win over Central Coast not quite enough.
The teams will go head-to-head for the right to host next month’s grand final over two legs in the major semi-final, with the first game to be played in Adelaide on February 7 and the second a week later in Melbourne.
And while another championship to go with the one the club claimed two years ago with a 6-0 thrashing of Adelaide in the decider is the major goal the Victory have set themselves for, Muscat isn’t understating the premiership achievement.
“It means a lot to us, first past the post after 21-odd games, you can dissect luck down to whatever you want but over 21 games you can’t be lucky to end up top of the tree and that’s what we’ve achieved,” Muscat said on Monday.
“They (Adelaide United) had a few chances last night (against the Mariners) but you can’t dissect luck down to 90 minutes, it’s over the duration of the season, you can’t be lucky over a season. You can be lucky over a game or a 10-minute spell but not over a season.”
Muscat though has already turned his attention to the upcoming matches against the Reds, keen to ensure that the club’s fans are rewarded for their loyalty with another home decider.
“I’ve always said you’ve got to certainly enjoy the good times, the bad times certainly outweigh the good times by far,” he added. “We’ll take stock, we’ve enjoyed last night, we move on.”
“We sat down as a group of players … we set ourselves some goals, and so far, so good, every one’s come to fruition. But there’s certainly one more goal.”
“Last night was a massive step, we tend to underestimate what winning the league is, it certainly means a hell of a lot to us but from here on in we’ve got one more hurdle we want to jump.”
“We want a home grand final, we want it here in Melbourne, our fans deserve it more than anyone else. They’ve been superb all season, we want a home grand final and we want to win it here in front of our fans.”
Disappointed not to have sewn up the premiership earlier in the campaign, having then needed to win five of the final six games to secure the trophy, Muscat isn’t getting carried away by Melbourne’s three wins from as many games this season against Adelaide.
“You look at that and you take confidence, without a doubt,” he conceded. “Stats are great because they’re numbers that people can put in the press but once you cross that white line they mean nothing, literally nothing.”
“We’ll go into the two games against Adelaide (and) we’ve done very well, we’ve probably played our best football against them so we’ll take confidence but once you cross the white line it means nothing, if we don’t turn up we’ll get beaten, simple as that.”
“It’s been proven that we turn up in the big games … we’ve scored more goals than anyone else and I’ve always said with the strike force we’ve got, if we keep clean sheets we’ll win games because they’ll get a spell in the game where they can turn all the defences inside out.”
