Whoever said consistency is a good thing in football probably didn’t have to suffer through an eight game winless streak.
Whoever said consistency is a good thing in football probably didn-t have to suffer through an eight game winless streak.
It would be wrong, and quite frankly almost impossible, to a positive spin on Saturday-s performance against the Newcastle Jets. If the Heart were somewhat unlucky on the opening day of the season to leave Newcastle empty handed, they were anything but on Saturday. John van-t Schip was left to rue another loss, but worryingly this was probably the most despondent one of the lot.
Even without Sarkies, Fred, Thompson, Hoffman, Dugandzic and Behich, this was a performance that few will make excuses for. Thankfully, with Fred a good chance to return to the side against Gold Coast United, the same team against whom the torrid injury took place, and the Olyroos set to make their return as well, the outlook is somewhat brighter this week, but there is no denying that van-t Schip cannot afford to see his side lose once more this weekend. In fact, he can seldom afford to watch his side take a draw.
The manager seems to think that it will only take one good result to stop the rot that has seen Melbourne Heart fall from the heights of the top four to the worrying depths the club now occupies. Perhaps guilty of taking the prospect of finals football this season for granted after an amazing winning streak, there should be no illusions as to how close Heart now are to throwing all that good work away.
Despite Gold Coast being all but consigned to finish last this season, Miron Bleiberg has rallied his troops by asking them to wreak havoc on the chances of play-off hopefuls, such as Melbourne Heart, for the remainder of the season. Gold Coast can-t buy a win, but they would revel in inflicting even more misery upon the Heart and prolonging their turgid run of form.
Heart have to stand up and be accountable however and with so many players returning from injury and international duty, excuses are starting to run a little thin. Milicic has already stated the obvious this week in declaring this week-s game “must win”, and that has to be made clear to each and every one of the players involved this weekend.
Football is a ruthless game and it will expose the Heart if they aren-t strong enough or good enough. It is up to the players to prove otherwise.
Over to you, Heart.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mg91
