Barbarouses praises fan impact

Thumbnail

Melbourne Victory forward Kosta Barbarouses has praised the role of the Club’s fans in Saturday night’s 2-1 victory over Sydney FC. 

The annual Australia Day meeting of the Hyundai A-League’s two biggest rivals drew in excess of twenty thousand spectators to AAMI Park, and the New Zealand international recognised their influence on the night.

“[They were] massive.

“It was a great day for everyone to come out and support the team. They were very vocal… I’ve said it many times, our fans are fantastic when there are numbers like that.

“We really appreciate it and it helps us immensely.”

The home side gave the crowd plenty to cheer about early, with a positive start laying the foundation for an important result.

“I think we started well. We were on the front foot for most of the first half, got a great goal, went up and kept at it. 

“We were on top going into the second half, got our second goal reasonably early and, as we expected, they came at us with a little more, took a few risks and got a goal back.

“But, I think the boys worked extremely hard and got our just rewards in the end.”

The contest was Victory’s seventh league fixture in just 29 days and following the gruelling schedule Barbarouses believes the Club is well placed to attack the back end of the season. 

“We spoke before the month – the busy period – about what we wanted to achieve over the month.

“Obviously we would’ve liked to end up top of the table, but we achieved maintaining our position and putting pressure on Perth.

“I couldn’t be happier, we’ve done extremely well in tough circumstances and shown a lot of character.”

Following recovery the Melbourne Victory number nine and his teammates will enjoy a few days off, before quickly turning their attention to Central Coast next Saturday night.

“We’ll have a couple of days off to recover, which we haven’t had all month… then a four day lead in to Central Coast away.

“We’ll turn our focus to [the Mariners], rest and recover, go there and look to start on the front foot.”