Victory fab five set for derby

Stars look ready for City

FOOTBALL: Melbourne Victory look set to field their visa fab five for just the second time this season, with Ola Toivonen primed to return for Saturday’s Melbourne derby.

Pressure is mounting on Melbourne City boss Warren Joyce after last Friday’s horror loss to a depleted Newcastle Jets leaves them in fifth, nine points behind Victory.

City’s woes are compounded by the absence of first-team regulars Riley McGree, Lachlan Wales and Nathaniel Atkinson, who are joining Graham Arnold’s Olyroos squad for a camp.

Keisuke Honda is pushing for a start after impressing in his impact role coming on in the 55th minute of the draw – he scored the equaliser via the penalty spot – away to Wellington, seven minutes more than his comeback game the week before.

Victory’s visa quintet – Kosta Barbarouses is the only one who’s avoided injury – has played just seven minutes together this season – the win away to Sydney FC in Round 5, when Toivonen scored the winner in his first start.

Toivonen will recommence running and full-scale training this week and will be monitored before Victory coach Kevin Muscat decides on whether to start or unleash him from the bench – if he’s passed fit.

The Swedish sharpshooter has missed three games, but with German defender Georg Niedermeier’s progress mirroring Honda’s and Spaniard Raul Baena playing his second straight 90-minute match, Muscat was thrilled with the players’ progress.

“We got some more minutes into Keisuke and Georg, got some minutes into Donachie, Raul played another 90 minutes,” Muscat said.

“So we’re not in a good space if you understand what I mean, but we’re heading into that area.

“He (Toivonen) got a knock three weeks ago, it was a cork so it was treated – the knock to his thigh, he was trying to get up for the game three days later.

“The blood calcifies in his quad so basically you can’t move, you can’t run because you haven’t got full range because the blood’s calcified. Is he going to be right for next weekend? I hope so, but we treat him as he presents every day.”

Joyce admitted that the team’s inconsistent results were frustrating.

“There’s no easy games in this league – our worst results have come against teams that might not be that high in the league,” Joyce said.

“We’ve done all right against some of the higher teams.

“You want consistency.”

A-League scores: Wellington Phoenix 1 Melbourne Victory 1, Newcastle Jets 3 Melbourne City 1, Adelaide Utd 1 Western Sydney Wanderers 3, Perth Glory 4 Brisbane Roar 0