A-League: Melbourne Victory handed fixture slog

Melbourne Victory have a most taxing A-League haul with the rescheduling of their Phoenix match from last month.

Victory’s James Donachie says the team will just have to suck up the extra travel after their Wellington Phoenix match was rescheduled for next month.

Melbourne Victory have been handed a taxing A-League assignment following the rescheduling of last month’s earthquake-affected match against Wellington.

The round-seven game will be played on January 17, wedged in between a home match with Brisbane and an away date against Perth Glory.

The rescheduling means Victory’s players will have to undertake the long journey between the New Zealand and West Australian capitals with only 96 hours between matches. Adding to the congestion, they then return to Melbourne for a Big Blue with Sydney FC five days later on Australia Day.

Victory’s squad will spend more than 15 hours in the air, travelling 10,500km over a six-day period as they negotiate the onerous fixture run. All up in January, Kevin Muscat’s men will play six games in six different stadiums in 24 days.

Victory defender James Donachie suggested there’d be no complaining from the Victory camp when the new date was confirmed yesterday.

“You’ve just got to get on with it, don’t you?” Donachie said.

“(We’ll be) living on the plane but that’s the job. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll get a neck pillow.”

Wellington will have to play three games in eight days because of the rescheduled fixture, setting up a bumper week at Westpac Stadium.

On January 14, they’ll host Central Coast, on the 17th Victory visit, and on the 21st, Brisbane Roar come to town.

A-League chief Greg O’Rourke said he wanted to reschedule the match before the proposed date, but had hit roadblocks.

“Our aim is to play the match as soon as we can in order to restore the balance of the fixtures among all of the clubs on the ladder,” he said.

“Having taken into account a number of factors and after discussion with both clubs and the broadcasters, this is the first available midweek date available as Westpac Stadium will be under-going planned turf maintenance throughout December.”

The Phoenix, who parted ways with manager Ernie Merrick this week, aren’t due to be playing at their home ground until New Year’s Day.

Wellington are taking two home games on the road in ­December.

This weekend’s clash with Central Coast will be played in Hamilton, and the round-11 match with Western Sydney is being staged in Auckland.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake just north of Christchurch on November 15 forced the Victory match, scheduled for November 19, to be postponed after an engineering assessment prompted minor works.

AAP