Melbourne City pleased to be back at home after three successive away losses

Melbourne City hopes returning to AAMI Park on Saturday will lead to a return to winning ways.

A nightmare run of away games has a struggling Melbourne City grateful to be returning to AAMI Park on Saturday.

City hasn’t won or scored in more than a month, suffering three straight away losses to Auckland FC (3-0), Macarthur FC (1-0) and Adelaide United (1-0) in four-week period that included a bye.

It’s a form dip that has resulted in the Aurelio Vidmar-coached team sliding out of the top six ahead of Saturday’s home match against Perth Glory.

“The travel is always difficult and we’ve had three pretty tough games away to Auckland, away to Macarthur, and away to Adelaide,” Vidmar said.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to pick up any points in that period, (but) now we (only) have … three games away from home for the rest of the season – Sydney, Western Sydney, and Wellington.

“We’ve got a hell of a lot of games here in Melbourne at AAMI Park, and that gives us a little bit more stability going into the back end of the season.”

Final touches ahead of tomorrow's doubleheader 🖌️

🎟️ https://t.co/Iqzyzm4FTGpic.twitter.com/Ck2rq5CRO7

— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) February 14, 2025

Despite City’s recent woes on the road, an away trip to Perth in November was extremely satisfying, with the Melbourne club thrashing the Glory 5-0.

However, Vidmar predicted a revamped Perth outfit to be tougher to beat on Saturday.

“They’ve made a lot of changes … half the team is different to when we played them last time in Perth, so it’s going to be a completely different game,” the City coach said.

“They’re playing more to the style and to the behaviours that they want … but we have to be ready for (them).

“We’re playing at home and, we haven’t won for three weeks, so, we need to put ourselves in a position where we can control the game and control those moments.”

Vidmar said he had been encouraged by the progress of Socceroos stalwart Mat Leckie on his return from a long-term leg injury.

“We’re managing him in a different way than we have had in the past. He’s feeling good going into the games,” he said of the veteran winger.

“He’s an important player for us. We all know that and it makes a big difference when he’s in the team.”

Originally published as Melbourne City pleased to be back at home after three successive away losses