Pride, performance and ending an unenviable away record are the key objectives for Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John Aloisi in the Club’s final match of the 2012-13 Hyundai A-League season this Saturday.
Pride, performance and ending an unenviable away record are the key objectives for Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John Aloisi in the Club-s final match of the 2012-13 Hyundai A-League season this Saturday.
Heart travels to Sydney this afternoon ahead of the Club-s Round 27 fixture against Central Coast Mariners at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford and with the Red and White out of finals contention, Aloisi is aiming to finish the season on the right note.
“We-re looking to end on a high; we want to make sure we finish the season off well,” Aloisi said.
“I know we can-t make the finals, but it-s still an important game for us. We trained hard this week and we want to make sure we get a good result against Central Coast.
While Aloisi will demand a solid performance from his charges, Heart-s away record – which has seen the Red and White collect just one point outside of Melbourne this season – will also be firmly on the agenda.
“We want to put [our away record] right because we want to make sure that we can win this game at home and next season we don-t have to worry about our away form,” Aloisi said.
“It looks like we-ve had a really disappointing season but there were periods there where we played some really good football.
“It holds us in good stead for next season because we-ve got a lot of young players who played a lot more [football] than expected this season and I-m sure that we will have a strong squad for next year.
“So it-s important we end on a high and that will give us more confidence heading onto next season.”
With the Mariners awaiting the outcome of tonight-s showdown between Western Sydney Wanderers and the Newcastle Jets to learn of their Premier-s Plate fate, Aloisi will not waver from his game plan if the Mariners make changes based on tonight-s result.
“It depends on the result that Western Sydney get, but no matter what the result, if the Mariners are playing for the Premier-s Plate or if they-re not, they-ll still want to win because that gives them confidence heading into the finals series,” Aloisi said.
“I know Arnie [Mariners Head Coach Graham Arnold] is saying that he might not play his strongest eleven – [but] you never know with him – so we-ll just prepare the same way and it-s going to be a difficult game no matter who he plays, or who he puts out there, but we-ll be ready for it.”
“I think their whole team is dangerous because they work well together; they-re well organised and they-re a strong team that never stops fighting and they-ve got some individual guys that can make a difference”.
A Pedj Bojic double settled the score in the last meeting between the teams, but Aloisi believes his side can push the Mariners in the Red and White-s final match.
“We haven-t been too far off against any team so we know that when we perform well we can beat any team in this league, we just haven-t done that consistently,” Aloisi said.
“We-ve performed against most teams, sometimes we won-t get the result that we probably deserved or needed and that-s probably the reason why we-re not in the six, but we-re not scared of any team in this league because we know we can beat anyone.”
