Muscat hails 'exciting' display
Coach Kevin Muscat was delighted with Melbourne Victory's attackers after their 4-1 win over Central Coast lifted them to fourth in the table.
Four players got on the scoresheet for the defending champions, with Corey Brown registering his first goal since joining from Brisbane Roar in the close season and James Troisi breaking his duck for the season.
Japanese marquee Keisuke Honda scored the home side's go-ahead goal at AAMI Park - his first since the opening round.
Muscat felt his attackers were very sharp against the Mariners and could easily have scored several more goals.
The coach had had to reshuffle his side just before kick-off after Jai Ingham sustained an injury in the warm-up. It didn't harm them as the opening 45 minutes were by far the best they have played this season.
Muscat says the last two games - last week they won the Grand Final rematch against Newcastle Jets - had been a great response after back-to-back losses at the start of the campaign.
He hailed their first-half performance as "tremendous", adding: "It was exciting, it was disciplined, it was controlled, it was measured, had a lot of desire about it and some really good football.
"I really enjoyed watching it and the players certainly enjoyed it and we created a number of chances in that first half. We could have had quite a few more."
The Victory coach was happy to see former Sweden international Ola Toivonen make his mark on his club debut when he came off the bench to set up the final goal for Josh Hope.
"Ola's run [to set the goal up] was very clever and you'll see in weeks to come he's a very clever footballer," he added. "The execution - one touch to control, second one to play the ball into Josh's path - he made it look a lot easier than it was."
Melbourne Victory are 9/2 to win the Grand Final and 5/2 to win their next game against Sydney FC, who are 19/20 with the draw 11/4.
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Coach Kevin Muscat was delighted with Melbourne Victory's attackers after their 4-1 win over Central Coast lifted them to fourth in the table.
Four players got on the scoresheet for the defending champions, with Corey Brown registering his first goal since joining from Brisbane Roar in the close season and James Troisi breaking his duck for the season.
Japanese marquee Keisuke Honda scored the home side's go-ahead goal at AAMI Park - his first since the opening round.
Muscat felt his attackers were very sharp against the Mariners and could easily have scored several more goals.
The coach had had to reshuffle his side just before kick-off after Jai Ingham sustained an injury in the warm-up. It didn't harm them as the opening 45 minutes were by far the best they have played this season.
Muscat says the last two games - last week they won the Grand Final rematch against Newcastle Jets - had been a great response after back-to-back losses at the start of the campaign.
He hailed their first-half performance as "tremendous", adding: "It was exciting, it was disciplined, it was controlled, it was measured, had a lot of desire about it and some really good football.
"I really enjoyed watching it and the players certainly enjoyed it and we created a number of chances in that first half. We could have had quite a few more."
The Victory coach was happy to see former Sweden international Ola Toivonen make his mark on his club debut when he came off the bench to set up the final goal for Josh Hope.
"Ola's run [to set the goal up] was very clever and you'll see in weeks to come he's a very clever footballer," he added. "The execution - one touch to control, second one to play the ball into Josh's path - he made it look a lot easier than it was."
Melbourne Victory are 9/2 to win the Grand Final and 5/2 to win their next game against Sydney FC, who are 19/20 with the draw 11/4.
Source: bet365.com
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