After a less than promising start to his Melbourne Victory tenure, head coach Joe Montemurro has overseen his goal hungry side turn over three wins and a draw in the last four rounds – the latest being a 4-0 win over Adelaide United.
The opening round loss to Newcastle Jets seems a world away for the title chasers but Montemurro has reiterated that the experience of the loss wasn’t lost on his side over the past month.
“It’s a difficult league, it’s 12 games and you don’t have any breathing space,” the Victory coach said.
“We’ve just had to regroup, make sure we did what we needed to do and believe in our style of play and what we’re doing.
“The belief is starting to come through. It’s a one-off in football, you lose games but I think good teams are able to bounce back, and bounce back well.”
Not only have the results poured in, but they’ve come in emphatic goal scoring fashion, but the bane of the Victory’s season has been a leaky defence, which had conceded seven goals in it’s first four games.
Their clean sheet against the Lady Reds was their first of the season, with standout performances coming all across the back four and ‘Pepe’ admitted they’d be prepared to do more of the same, even if it means sacrificing some attacking potency.
A 1-0 win as long as we’ve got the three points and don’t cop a goal and I’m happy,” Montemurro quipped.
“It’s game by game, I don’t try and predict too far ahead. We need to make sure as Melbourne Victory, we play our brand of football and I think our brand of football and our approach will always come on top and be successful.
“But you need to be cautious of who you’re playing and understand them. Every game in this league is big because it’s a short league so you need to keep the momentum going.”
He finished off by reserving praise for his opponents who now find themselves anchored at the bottom of the W-League ladder.
“The approach to the game, I have to pay a lot of respect to Adelaide United, they’re a very well structured side and I knew it’d be difficult, and it was.
“We had to be smart and in the end I think we showed some good things. But there weren’t some good things that we need to put a check on to make sure we’re back on track with the attitude and the way we played.
“I really don’t think where they are on the ladder reflects the type of side they are. They’re a difficult side to break down, very well organised and Ross [Aloisi’s] done a good job.
“We probably started to tire and do silly things, they could’ve come back into the game so I pay a lot of respect to Adelaide.”
Photo: Anita Milas/Melbourne Victory