Not time for Victory to panic: Muscat
Jan 21, 2017 - 6:00 PM Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat hasn't given up hope of overhauling ladder leaders Sydney FC, saying there's no need for his team to panic despite their two-match losing run.Victory are now eight points adrift of the Sky Blues after following up their 3-0 loss to Wellington with a 2-1 loss to Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Saturday night.
The double setback has severely dented Victory's chances of winning the Premiers' Plate.
But with Victory to face off against Sydney twice in the last 11 rounds, Muscat believes there's still time for his team to snatch top spot.
The first of those matches will come on Thursday night, when Victory host the championship favourites at Etihad Stadium
"I'll never give up. It's not in my nature," Muscat said when asked whether top spot was now a bridge too far.
"I'll make sure I surround myself with people of a like mind to myself.
"We won't need any motivation next week. We're at home. We'll freshen up. It will be a good game of football.
"Prior to these two games we'd won six on the bounce, so I'm certainly not going to panic."
Victory were 1-0 up against Glory following Besart Berisha's 58th-minute penalty.
But goals to Nebojsa Marinkovic and Adam Taggart within the space of eight minutes secured all three points for Perth.
Marinkovic levelled the scores when he curled his 21m free-kick around the Victory wall.
Muscat was unhappy with the way the wall was set up for the free-kick, as well as several other bad decisions made by his players.
"We found a way to destruct and beat ourselves, because I thought we were the much better team on the night," Muscat said.
"There were some poor decisions towards the end there when good decisions needed to be made under a little bit of pressure.
"The free-kick was just too easy.
"This is no disrespect to Perth, but we found a way to play them into the game. Simple as that."
Victory made five changes to their starting XI against Perth, and they're set to welcome back a host of big names against Sydney.
Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Jason Geria are available after serving their one-match bans, while Nick Ansell and Oliver Bozanic will be fresh after missing the trip to Perth.
Star midfielder Marco Rojas, who missed a golden chance to put Victory 2-0 ahead against Perth, will also be fresh after only coming on in the 64th minute.
Source: AAP
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