Derby draw does little to lift clouds over City’s Warren Joyce

A draw with Melbourne Victory will have done little to lift the clouds over City coach Warren Joyce.

Victory’s Kosta Barbarouses fires home an equaliser from a tight angle against Melbourne City at Marvel Stadium. Picture: AAP

Melbourne City coach Warren Joyce went into the derby against Melbourne Victory with a dark cloud hanging over his future, and Saturday night’s 1-1 draw at Marvel Stadium is unlikely to be enough to blow away the growing storm of conjecture.

Certainly, the Englishman remains a man under intense pressure after his side failed to make the most of playing with a one-man advantage for 75 minutes after Victory had defender Georg Niedermeier sent off for a second yellow card.

It was a costly moment for Victory with Jamie Maclaren scoring from the resultant penalty, yet City could not make its bitter rivals pay and eventually had to settle for a point after Kosta Barbarouses equalised just five minutes after halftime.

City huffed and puffed but it had no answer to Kevin Muscat’s tactical changes and was basically restricted to long-range efforts on goal as it ran out of ideas on how to break down Victory’s resilient defence.

City has now gone five successive games without a win, having lost three and drawn twice. With matches against leaders Perth Glory and second-placed Sydney FC its next two fixtures, it could be in serious danger of slipping out of the top six.

Whether Joyce survives even that long remains to be seen given the drums were beating last week that he is under the gun. There were suggestions that had City lost against Victory, management would make a move on him.

As much as he remains defiant, declaring “I ain’t no quitter” when asked about his situation last Friday, the mood among the City hierarchy is unlikely to have changed given the side’s inability to break down a team with 10 men.

Joyce was in no mood to discuss his position after the game.

“That’s a question for someone else,” he replied when asked what the result meant for him. “We are disappointed we did not get the three points.

“We started really well, pressed well with some good passing … we were the front-foot team and deserved to lead.

“The bits of play after that, we had a couple of good chances, (Rostyn) Griffiths hits the post and at 2-0 it would have been more comfortable.

“They made changes and went to a 4-3-2 and counterattacked and, unfortunately, a moment of madness where we are still appealing for a penalty at the other end, we are disorganised and they go on and score from an acute angle.”

Understandably, Muscat was the happier of the two coaches even if the result meant his side slipped from second to third, with Sydney FC overtaking the Victorians following their 1-0 win over Wellington Phoenix at Campbelltown Stadium earlier in the day.

The former Socceroo acted decisively, sacrificing attacker Elvis Kamsoba for defender James Donachie and reorganising his formation before bringing on key striker Ola Toivonen at halftime for James Troisi.

“To go down to 10 men so early and concede off the same incident, it left us with a big challenge,” Muscat said.

“But halftime was really important for us. We shifted things a little bit and were still going for the game.

“With two up top, that comes with some risks, but when you have a group of men who play with such desire and discipline anything’s possible.

“Once we got the equaliser we were the ones looking to score and push on. We conceded a few chances but they came from distance.”

With an Asian Champions League campaign coming up and seven rounds left in the A-League regular season, Muscat believes there is still plenty of room for improvement for the defending champions.

And he says his team relishes the challenges.

“We have got the opportunity to keep getting better and better and perform at a high level. That’s the object.

“That performance in the second half is a real good platform going forward.”