Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic wants to prove last round's spirited win over Gold Coast was not another false dawn in a season yet to hit great heights.
The third-placed Victory meet the Jets in Newcastle on Saturday night, seeking consecutive wins for the first time this season.
Durakovic praised the character shown by his team in producing a late winner at home to Gold Coast on Sunday, despite being reduced to 10 men.
But the first-season coach says the challenge is to reproduce that spirit at a venue where the Victory's record is mediocre.
"It's only one week, but we've got to take it into the next week," he said.
"We've just got to build on that, we'll go to Newcastle. It's not going to be easy."
The Victory have won just twice previously in nine visits to Newcastle.
The only change Durakovic planned to make to his starting line-up was to replace suspended veteran defender Rody Vargas with youngster Petar Franjic.
Durakovic says having been forced into regular team alterations through injury, suspension and international call-ups, he hopes keeping a settled team will aid consistency.
He had previously lavished praise on his team's spirit after they drew 2-2 at home with table-toppers Brisbane Roar in round five, despite being reduced to nine men.
But the Victory failed to build on that momentum, following it with a fortunate scoreless draw against Central Coast, then a deflating fade-out 2-2 draw with a depleted Perth Glory.
That led to Durakovic coming under enormous pressure before Sunday's relieving win.
He has urged his players not to let their renewed spirit slip away again.
"We need to keep this intensity, we need to keep the tempo going," Durakovic said.
"We worked on it all (last) week, we talked about it and the boys were fantastic.
"We need to build on that."
AAP
Tags: soccer, sport, melbourne-3000 First posted December 02, 2011 17:37:49
No comments:
Post a Comment