Melbourne City FC Head Coach Warren Joyce believes his side is starting to build momentum leading into the Finals Series ahead of Sunday’s crucial clash with the Newcastle Jets.
City returned to the winner’s list last weekend with an impressive 3-0 home win over the Western Sydney Wanderers, a result which gives Joyce’s charges extra belief and confidence heading into a difficult Easter Sunday test against the second-placed Jets.
With only three matches remaining in the regular season and a top-three finish still to secure, the boss says his side must harness this feel-good factor to end the regular season on a positive note.
“Even the games that we’ve not won the performance have been building, he said. “You’re integrating new players and you can see development in the last few weeks and things are coming together. We’ve got to build on that now.”
“We just want to win the game and if we keep our focus and try to win every game we play from now until the end of the season. It keeps the season going and hopefully, it results in a success at the end of the campaign.”
City are yet to taste defeat against Newcastle this season, with Manny Muscat’s late thunderbolt securing all three points the last time the two sides met at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The Jets made the return trip to AAMI Park in Round 18 as both sides played out a pulsating 2-2 draw, but despite City’s impressive record against the Jets, Joyce insists that previous results will count for little on Sunday.
“[Previous results] have no bearing on the weekend. It’s good that we’ve done it, but we have to do it again. I don’t look at things like that. We have to make sure we’re absolutely flat out and bang on it for the weekend.”
“We’re just looking at one game at a time, we’ve done that all season. We’ll try and get into a situation where we stop them from playing and hurt them when we get the ball.”
