One would expect Melbourne Heart FC stand-in captain Matt Thompson to have fond memories of Wellington.
One would expect Melbourne Heart FC stand-in captain Matt Thompson to have fond memories of Wellington.
Having netted one of the best goals scored by a player in Red and White during a 2-2 at Westpac Stadium last season, Thompson-s effort was a fixture in end of season highlight reels, a rare diamond amidst a rough debut campaign for the Heart.
Thompson however was typically forthright in his recollection of the match, declaring the goal a mere postscript or aberration to a sub-par performance.
”Wellington was my worst game of the year last season,” he said.
“It was nice to score, but I wasn’t good in that game, which is why I was a bit disappointed when I scored. I couldn’t pass the ball five feet in that match, which was surprising. If we win on Sunday and move further up the table, I can play as badly as I want. It doesn’t matter if we get the result.”
Despite failing to clinch a desired victory over either the Central Coast Mariners or Brisbane Roar, Heart demonstrated enough to suggest they remain in the elite bracket of side-s in the competition with a pair of stellar displays which failed to yield more than a solitary point, once again emphasising football-s sometimes cruel nature.
With the Club-s match-up with third placed Wellington a proverbial ‘three pointer-, Heart needs to secure a win to maintain its hopes of clinching a top-two berth and double chance in the Hyundai A-League Finals Series.
“Looking at the table, things haven’t gone right. We had a few disappointing results after the Victory game, but the last few weeks the performances have been better – we are getting where we think we need to be in terms of playing … We were good against Central Coast, we just didn’t take our chances, and 1-1 against the club that is to me the top team in the league [Brisbane Roar] is a top performance,” Thompson said.
”Winning is a habit. We got outplayed against Adelaide … and then we backed it up with a not-very-good performance against Gold Coast.
”It’s not an ideal situation to be in, but I think we have run ourselves back into form, where we were in that good run, and it started to show against Brisbane.”
