So last week, despite making it difficult for ourselves, we managed to get all three points at home. Great. But here comes the true test – can we back it up with another strong performance? Will we see the same passion, desire and teamwork that was evident against Gold Coast? I think so. I hope so.

Newcastle has always been one of those tough away trips. Sure, we’ve won games there but we’ve also had some bad experiences too. And the twat that is Ryan Griffiths always seems to screws things up for us. When asked about the trip to Newcastle, Leigh Broxham said this week:

I remember one of my first games up there and we lost 4-0. I don’t know. It is a bit of an eerie place, a bit of a different place to go. I don’t know how to describe it. Just eerie is the word.

The feel of the place, generally it’s hot, it’s usually a Sunday at 5pm kick off. So maybe a Saturday night will help.

Having never been to Newcastle myself I’ll just have to take his word for it. But no matter what the conditions or the feeling around the stadium, nothing will excuse the players if they sink back into old ways. They can’t afford to.

In terms of the approach to todays game Mehmet Durakovic is keen to build on last weeks performance and won’t make too many changes to his line-up:

We won’t make too many changes. We need to  build on it and keep the consistency  going. We want to keep the same team as much as possible.

All week we’ve been focusing on the intensity and tempo. Now we’ve got to build on it.

And going to Newcastle it’s not going to be easy. If we can pick up something in Newcastle to come back to Melbourne and we’ve got the next three out of four games in Melbourne.

He will however be forced to make at least one change with Vargas set to miss through suspension after his red card last weekend. Petar Franjic is expected to take his place. Danny Allsopp also returns to the squad having been cleared to play, although there are no guarantees he will.

Matthew Kemp has recovered from his injury and is included but you’d think a spot on the bench will be as far as he’ll get today. Also, Fabio looks set to play despite injuring his ankle against Gold Coast, so a quick turn around from him. Solorzano misses out again but he will line up for the Youth team this week so lets hope he’s not too far away from a return to the first team.

And thats that. I’ll now point you in the direction of this weeks Victorycast to continue the build up to tonights game. Kick off is 7:45pm. Fingers crossed the boys can get it done and return to Melbourne more than ready for a festive season of football.