Winger Mate Dugandzic believes his side has become more disciplined and focused since Melbourne City FC faced city rival Melbourne Victory and is confident there won’t be a repeat of the score line of the first Melbourne Derby of the 2014/15 campaign.
Dugandzic, who played in a number 9 role in the absence of David Williams in that Round 3 loss at Etihad Stadium, feels that his Melbourne City side are raring to make amends for that result earlier in the season.
“I think everyone’s looking forward to it,” Dugandzic said.
“Last time around we didn’t play as well as we would have liked, so I think everyone is just eagerly anticipating the match and just looking forward to getting out there.
“I speak on my behalf of myself in that instance; I guess it is still on my mind, we played well in the first half yet they were still able to score two goals. In the second half they dominated the majority of play.
“It’s something that we need to rectify in this game.
“I suppose [what we learned] was to be a little more disciplined – at times we weren’t as focused and disciplined as we should have been and that cost us at the end of the day.”
“In the first game I felt we were all over them in the first half, yet they were able to score two goals.
“You can see from the way they are playing, they are always going to find a way to hit the back of the net, but hopefully we can keep another clean sheet and not allow them to do that.
Dugandzic said the team had used the weekend off to gather themselves for the busy Christams Schedule but felt it would not affect their momentum from the home win against the Brisbane Roar.
“I don’t think so; we’re full of confidence and we know what we’re capable of so I don’t think it will affect us too much,” Dugandzic said.
“We were put through our paces, more so last week not having the match (rescheduled Round 9 fixture against the Western Sydney Wanderers) so it was a bit of a tough session last Saturday.
“We’re just looking forward to Saturday night now.”