Melbourne Victory Women’s boss Jeff Hopkins has expressed his determination to play an attacking and positive style with three points up for grabs against Newcastle Jets in Shepparton.
Keen to recapture that winning feeling with the race for the Ninja A-League’s top six heating up, Hopkins has assured his side will be ready to do battle with the Jets at John McEwen Reserve on Saturday, February 7, kick-off 7:30pm AEDT.
Although beaten on the road in the Capital by Canberra United last time out, the Girls in Blue put up an admirable fight and took the lead on the day despite going a player down in the first half following Claudia Bunge’s red card challenge. This dismissal has since been overturned by the match review panel.
Victory will face the team they last recorded a win against, with Newcastle also hungry to record a much-needed triumph in their own pursuit of finals football.
Speaking during his pre-match press conference, Hopkins offered fans a preview of what to expect this weekend and gave his reflections on the latest outing versus Canberra.
“I think we could see a few changes, and I think it is more around confidence. I’d never question the work rate of any of these players. I think you could see it on the weekend, even when we went down to 10 players, we didn’t give up.
“I think over the past three-four weeks, although we haven’t got the results that we wanted, I think the level of our play has been of a pretty high standard. What we need to do is cut out individual mistakes.”
Victory put in one of their standout performances of the season against the Jets in Newcastle, so Hopkins anticipates Stephen Hoyle’s side to come out hungry for revenge in Shepparton.
“They’ve obviously changed the way that they play in terms of their formation since we’ve played them last. They’ve mixed their team up a fair bit.
“We need to win the game, so we won’t be sitting back. We’ll be very, very positive in the way we go about the game. We’ll be on the front foot, which could make for a very good game.”
After unexpectedly bringing Rhianna Pollicina on the trip to Canberra, where she would make her first appearance for the team since her wrist fracture, Hopkins credited the midfielder’s determination to get back on the field to a point where she is in contention for an increased role on Saturday.
“She’s ready to start. She’s amazing, last week she put herself out there. I think there’s got to be some sort of record coming back that quickly.
“Even just to put herself up to go onto the bench, she was really keen to play a part last week, which is what we need at this stage.”
Watch Hopkins’ full press conference below.
