If any time is right to break Melbourne Heart FC’s undesirable away habit, it is against Brisbane Roar this Sunday, the Red and White’s Croatian striker Josip Tadic believes
If any time is right to break Melbourne Heart FC-s undesirable away habit, it is against Brisbane Roar this Sunday, the Red and White-s Croatian striker Josip Tadic believes.
While mathematically in the hunt for the finals, four points adrift of Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets – who are fifth and sixth respectively with 31 points apiece – Heart faces two tricky away matches against the Roar and then second-placed Central Coast Mariners in the Club-s final regular season fixtures.
While it is a typical make-or-break scenario with Brisbane (29 points) also fighting to squeeze into the top six, Heart can take confidence from recent results – and performances – against the Queenslanders.
Heart is unbeaten in the past five encounters between the two teams, with the Red and White collecting two important wins (4-1 and 3-2) at AAMI Park this season.
While three points on the road has evaded Heart since round one this season, the assignment against the Roar might be less daunting given Heart-s healthy record against the Brisbane side.
“I believe we can [qualify for finals]; we have still two games against Brisbane and Central Coast so I see our opportunity in these two games to do something to go into the finals,” Tadic said.
“It-s tough, but we have a good [record] against Brisbane; we-ve played two matches at home and we won two games so we believe we can do the same away.”
Click play on the video below to listen to the audio from the interview.
The 25-year-old Croatian scored a goal in each of those encounters, and is eager to help lift Heart back within touching distance of fifth and sixth spot.
“We believe that we can go there and play our football and win,” Tadic said.
“We just need to concentrate on this first game against Brisbane. We have nothing to lose now – we have two games to finish this part of the season.
“We need to concentrate game by game, so we need to concentrate on Brisbane and we know how to play against them so it is a big opportunity to win this game.
“I go in every game with the thought that I will score a goal, so that it is the same with this game,”
Tadic played an important role as catalyst in the opening weeks of 2013 as Heart strung together five games unbeaten at home, built on the momentum of his three goals against the Jets, Roar and Adelaide United.
While the Heart-s leading goal scorer suffered a broken toe in the Melbourne Derby, bringing his goal-scoring form to an abrupt halt, Tadic believes he is feeling back to his best after returning from a four week layoff.
“I had four weeks off because of my injury but now I-m getting good and now I-m getting better and better,” Tadic said.
“I hope we finish the way we want to.”
