Motivational Melbourne skipper Kevin Muscat has shrugged off the affects of a virus to lead his side to a 1-0 home win over Adelaide on Friday night.
Motivational Melbourne skipper Kevin Muscat has shrugged off the affects of a virus to lead his side to a 1-0 home win over Adelaide on Friday night.
The captain scored the only goal of the evening at Telstra Dome after battling illness in the build up.
Coach Ernie Merrick paid tribute to Muscat who tapped home a rebound after his 63rd-minute penalty was saved by former team-mate Eugene Galekovic.
But the man himself was quick to turn the spotlight from his individual effort to the team’s impressive win, completed with 10 men after Ney Fabiano was sent off after half an hour.
“Very good. From the outset it was pretty obvious to me that they (Adelaide) were pretty happy to go away with a point,” Muscat summarised.
“If we keep enough clean sheets and get the ball to Archie (Thompson) and Carlos (Hernandez) and these blokes in the centre of the park we will terrorise teams here (Telstra Dome).”
“Even the second half when we were down a man it just seemed that we were probably the aggressor.”
“That just shows you the attitude and the inner belief that’s through those walls.”
“The work rate of individuals is outstanding and collectively we got what we deserved.”
Muscat, who until Friday night had not missed a penalty in the competition, was able to laugh at his spot-kick success coming to an end.
“I didn’t hit it well, I got a bit lucky. That’s the way it goes,” he smiled.
“Surely I deserved a little bit of luck. What was it? Fifteen, 16 (in a row)?”
“He did well Eugene, he was pretty pleased with himself anyway.”
Merrick said Victory had performed impressively since the practice match circuit and 10 points from four matches was a promising beginning to the campaign.
“I just feel we are playing really good football. We have since the second game of the Pre-Season Cup,” he said.
“It’s important we keep that consistency up.”
“Overall we’ve got good depth, we have a very skilful team and a team that really are putting in big effort. They have done from day one.”
“They’re not getting ahead of themselves.”
“We think we’ve got a good side, we’re aiming to be in the finals and we’re on track.”
Merrick said goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos and Hernandez were expected to overcome knocks and play against Central Coast at Gosford next Saturday night.
