The Brisbane Roar will be looking to continue their pre-finals form surge when they host fierce rivals Melbourne Victory at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
Brisbane Roar will be looking to continue their pre-finals form surge when they host fierce rivals Melbourne Victory at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
With six rounds left in the premiership rounds and a congested ladder, Roar coach Ange Postecoglou says his side are enjoying the extra edge that comes with the business end of the season.
And while the Roar are finals-bound with a firm grip on second place and the Victory are languishing in eighth, there won't be any lack of motivation for the hosts, who regard end-of-season form as essential to their goal of repeating their 2011-12 Championship.
"It's that time of the year now where every game is exciting; it all has a bit of an edge to it. Hopefully it brings out the best in players and teams, and it has in us in the last couple of weeks," said Postecoglou.
"For us it's about what we're doing and how we're going and hopefully developing our form from the last couple of weeks, and for us to get some consistency heading into the finals series."
"You need to be playing well going into the finals series to have a shot of winning it and that's our goal."
Brisbane's back-to-back 2-0 wins over Central Coast and Wellington appeared an indicator of a return to supremacy, but past history between the clubs - the Victory were the only side to beat the Roar in 2010-11 - and Melbourne's star-studded line-up has Postecoglou bracing for a slugfest on Saturday night.
With the Victory coming off an impressive 2-1 over the league-leading Mariners, Postecoglou says a lack of consistency has been the only thing keeping Melbourne outside of the six.
"Victory are a massive challenge. They're always good games with a bit of drama involved, so we're looking forward to it," he said.
"If you look at them in isolation, they've still got some very good players in their team and on their day can knock off just about everyone."
"But they haven't had any consistency in their results and in this league, which is such an even league, other clubs are showing that if you can get three or four wins together you can climb the ladder quickly and you can still get a lot out of the season."