Victory rally on the run
Muscat still seeing red A-LEAGUE
MELBOURNE Victory coach Kevin Muscat has to reshuffle his team as well as deal with a 74-hour turnaround between matches in trying to steady the team’s ship against Perth Glory tonight.
And Rhys Williams’ controversial dismissal in the 2-1 loss to last-placed Wellington has been added to Victory’s tale of woe, meaning he will miss the AAMI Park date against his old side.
New signing Terry Antonis could make his first start for the club, should Mark Milligan be shifted back to defence in Williams’ absence.
Muscat said he was still considering the right balance to take on the Glory.
“Mati Sanchez came off with a little bit of a sore quad, and Carl (Valeri) comes back into the mix. So there are some options,” Muscat said.
Another option, Leigh Broxham, would be making his 250th A-League appearance.
Thousands of face masks depicting the durable utility have been printed for the occasion, but Muscat said he couldn’t guarantee he’d be part of the team.
“Considering Leigh has come into the team after a bit of a lay-off, it's a short turnaround, he’ll have to be assessed,” he said.
“We’ll pick the team that has the best chance of being successful.”
Victory can barely afford another slip-up given its tenu- ous start to the season — and given Perth’s recent woes, fans are unlikely to accept anything but three points.
Kenny Lowe’s side has lost the last three matches with a combined score of 11-0.
Victory has only taken one point from six to start 2018 against two of the league’s lowest-ranked sides.
“If you look, we’ve been making progress and building,” Muscat said. “It was an outstanding performance in Geelong and we went across to Wellington and after six min- utes everything changes.”
Muscat called the 10-man performance courageous, but issued another call for clarity around the video referee.
A mid-season edict said yellow cards would not be regraded as red cards for bad challenges, but that’s exactly what happened in Williams’ case.
“I’m trying to give you a logical explanation and the only one is I’m not totally sure,” he said.
“It’s confusing ... and there’s no avenue to appeal.”