Melbourne Victory Head Coach Tony Popovic praised his side’s character after a 1-0 win over Perth Glory following a difficult trip to Western Australia.
A delayed flight meant Victory arrived in Perth far later than expected, but Francesco Margiotta’s second-half goal was enough to earn a win at HBF Park on Wednesday.
Victory climbed into third in the Isuzu UTE A-League, riding an eight-match unbeaten league run ahead of Saturday’s Melbourne Derby.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Popovic discussed the trip, the win and Margiotta’s goal.
on the trip…
“We’re very happy with three points. We had some real difficulties getting here. Flight was delayed for four or five hours, by the time we got on the flight, arriving 3.00am our time in Melbourne, by the time the players got to bed, probably 2.00am (Perth time), 2.30am, wouldn’t have got to bed before 2.30am because I didn’t and then we had some players that didn’t feel great, a couple under the weather, so we had to take a few players off today that probably played longer than they really should have, but very happy with the character shown, the resilience, through a real difficult 48 hours for us.”
on short turnaround ahead of Derby…
“It will be difficult, but we faced that recently, we went to Japan, played extra-time, travelled 24 hours back from Japan and 48 hours later we played Melbourne City, it was only recent and we had a draw and played very well so we have another opportunity now, difficult circumstances but a chance to show once again that we’re a good side.”
on form…
“We’re satisfied. We always want more. We want the team to put some sides away to make it a bit easier, at 1-0 it’s always a dangerous scoreline, but we’ve had two tough away wins, we had four draws prior to this run of wins, but we’ve been playing well at home, we’ve shown real character and resilience away from home now in two matches, short turnaround, we’ve got another one now with the Derby. I’m sure our fans and members will be extremely excited for the game coming up on Saturday and we want to hear the noise and we want them to support us as loud as they can to help us get the win we want against Melbourne City.”
on Margiotta…
“Very happy for him. He played very well in Adelaide a few days ago, set up our goal, had a very good match, he continued with that today, his link-up play was very good, he had a wonderful free-kick that hit the post and then he got the goal. I’m sure that’ll lift his confidence even further. He’s always been a good footballer and strikers when they score usually gain even more confidence so we’re hoping to see that from Francesco moving forward.”
