Melbourne Victory head coach Kevin Muscat was proud of his side’s courage after a hard-fought 1-1 Derby draw with City on Saturday.
Victory played 75 minutes with 10 men at Marvel Stadium after centre-back Georg Niedermeier was sent off.
But it still managed to earn a point, Kosta Barbarouses’ 50th-minute goal cancelling out Jamie Maclaren’s penalty.
Speaking at a post-match news conference, Muscat hailed his players for their fighting qualities.
on whether the game was positive…
“To go down to 10 men so early and also concede off the same incident, it was a big challenge, it was a big task ahead of us. I think half-time was really important for us and then from there, I just think a huge positive. The amount of courage and heart that we played with was really good, really nice to watch, really good to be involved in. Immediately after the break, we shifted things a little bit and (were) still going for the game. Still having two up top, two players in attack, comes with some risks without doubt, but when you’ve got a group of men that play with such desire and discipline, anything’s possible. That period from half-time up until we scored our goal, we were the ones looking to score, we were the ones looking to push on and ultimately we concede a few chances from distance, but that was about it. I was really pleased and proud of the boys, without doubt.”
on half-time break…
“It was important to get the players in and retake stock and reassess things in terms of where we wanted to press and the speed of how we wanted to press and all those minor little details that add up to a lot. The fact that we still had a threat going forward and got our goal, it was an outstanding full-of-heart display.”
on the rest of the season…
“There’s so much to achieve in the next seven games in the domestic competition because I’m very narrow-minded in the way I look at things. We’ve got an opportunity to keep getting better and better and perform at a high level so during those seven league games, that’s going to be the objective – to get better and better and perform at a high level and I think again that performance in the second half gives us a real good platform going forward.”