Melbourne Victory’s fight in a 1-1 draw with the Central Coast Mariners pleased head coach Grant Brebner.
Victory battled to a point against the A-League leaders in Gosford on Saturday after Callum McManaman’s opener was cancelled out by Marco Urena.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Brebner discussed the performance and provided an update on the injured Leigh Broxham.
on the game…
“I think in recent weeks we’ve had some tough times and to come away with a point tonight, obviously a club like Melbourne Victory want to come to any game and collect three points, but in light of the fact that our league position suggests we shouldn’t be coming away with anything against a top-of-the-table team, I think there’s a lot of positives we can take from that and our fighting spirit is certainly one of them.”
on performance…
“I think we played some really good stuff. I think we started quite shaky, nervously maybe, which is understandable coming to a tough place like this, but for a good 30 minutes I felt we played some reasonably good stuff, we get a goal at a good time and then I think conceding upset our rhythm a little bit and when you’re in the position we’re in a little bit of doubt comes into your mind because we have had some tough times in recent weeks, but tonight the boys saw it our very well.”
on fight…
“When you’re in our position, we need to show that we want to play for this football club, we need to show a commitment, an enthusiasm, a desire to get something out of the games. While I think we’ve shown that in certain patches in games, there’s always been little things that have crept up – goals against that kind of take the sucker punch out of us, but tonight while I’m not getting carried away with coming and getting a point, there’s certain aspects of tonight where the fight, the determination, not wanting to lose a game of football was very evident and that’s something they can be pleased with.”
on Broxham…
“Leigh just picked up a little knock in training during the week and just with the injuries we’ve had we’ve just taken a little bit of precaution with him to get him right.”
