Melbourne Victory ready to atone for shock loss to Wellington

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat says his side are ready to move on from this week’s shock loss to Wellington.

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat says Jai Ingham is ‘knocking down the door to get a run.’ Picture: Mark Stewart.

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat described it as a slap in the face but says his side is ready to move on from this week’s shock loss to Wellington Phoenix and return to winning form against Perth Glory at NIB Stadium tonight.

Chasing a seventh straight win and looking to maintain the pressure on competition leaders Sydney FC, the Victorians produced their worst performance of the season in going down 3-0 away to Phoenix on Tuesday night in a ­defeat that has left them five points adrift in second spot.

Victory face another challenging away trip to play a Perth side who are starting to gain some real confidence. And they’ll have to do it minus suspended duo Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Jason Geria and while they are in the middle of a tough playing and travelling schedule. This will be Victory’s third game in nine days while they have also had to make their two longest away trips to Wellington and now Perth in successive games.

All this on top of having to play Sydney FC in the battle of the big clubs on Thursday.

Still, Muscat isn’t complaining. “I don’t know if it is tough from that perspective,” he said when asked if the players had been galvanised or resorted to a siege mentality in the face of the schedule.

“It is what we do, it is the profession the players have chosen. Everyone has put their hand up to play tomorrow ... no one is say things are too tough. The thing is, we took a bit of a slap in the face on Tuesday night. We were second-best all night and I’m looking for a reaction tomorrow. Maybe we took a few things for granted the other night, but that won’t happen tomorrow.”

Given what his side have had to go through over the past week, Muscat hinted there might be some changes to his squad tomorrow. The absence of Ben Khalfallah and Geria means two forced changes, while he is also looking at some of the players who have had a heavy workload in recent times, including Marco Rojas, who has been the form player of the A-League.

“We haven’t planned too far ahead in terms of personnel but we understand the loads on the ­players and what we have to do,” he said. “But the reality is if you start looking too deep into the situation then you start to come out with excuses rather than reasons.”

While there are still 11 rounds to go after tonight’s game, this result could be crucial for both teams.

Third-placed Melbourne City’s win over the Mariners on Thursday night has put them within six points of Victory. Glory hold down sixth spot on 18 points but a win will see the West Australians jump to equal fourth with Brisbane Roar.