It’s now or never for Melbourne Victory, according to star striker Archie Thompson.
It’s now or never for Melbourne Victory, according to star striker Archie Thompson.
Victory have collected just seven points from their first six games this campaign and Thompson believes it is time to start putting some wins on the board, or they could easily face the reality of not making the Hyundai A-League finals.
With consecutive home games coming up against Perth Glory and Gold Coast United, Thompson said Victory needed to collect six points from the two clashes to get their season up and running.
“It’s time to start putting words into action,” Thompson said after Victory’s training session at Gosch’s Paddock in Melbourne on Friday.
“We have only won one game and we are coming into round seven.”
“Everyone harps on about us having good results, but we haven’t been getting enough points and we haven’t really been playing good football.”
“We really need to rectify that and this week would be a good way to start it.”
Thompson said the fact that his side had scored just four goals from the first six matches was a major worry.
“Defensively we have been fine, but we could probably do with a few more goals,” he said.
“We are not losing games, but we are not winning a hell of a lot so we need to change that.”
“Otherwise we are going to get frustrated, supporters are going to get frustrated and it just starts to build up. Then it turns on to the pitch and the confidence goes down.”
“We keep on saying it is early days in the season and we are still finetuning and starting to gel, but we need to start hitting our straps soon because … it is going to be finals time soon and before we know it we are out of the finals.”
If Victory are to get back on to the winner’s list on Sunday, Thompson knows exactly who his side must stop.
Glory striker Shane Smeltz has already found the back of the onion bag three times this campaign, but Thompson is more worried about a different scoring record.
Smeltz has 52 Hyundai A-League goals to his name and is now just four behind Thompson as the competition’s leading all-time scorer.
“The guy is catching me on the all-time goalscoring list,” a cheeky Thompson declared.
“So I will probably be back down there tackling him too this weekend.”