Melbourne Victory's finals hopes are hanging by a thread but coach Carlos Salvachua says his side are fully focused ahead of Saturday night's A-League meeting with Adelaide United.
Victory are ninth and nine points off the top six with eight games to go.
Salvachua said he wasn't fazed by his winless A-League record - citing Victory's three wins in the Asian Champions League (ACL) .
"We've won three games in the last 45 days - three games. And (if we win) tomorrow, (it) will be in the fourth one," he said.
"I know that this (would be) the first in the A-League but we cannot waste time talking about the past - now is the moment, the present, and it's just Adelaide in our mind."
Victory will have close to a full squad to choose from - Leigh Broxham looks ready to feature, while Storm Roux is closing on a return from a calf injury.
Salvachua said his side had relished having a "normal" week of training after plenty of ACL travel.
Victory lost their past four matches against the Reds, including a 1-0 away defeat in Salvachua's first game in charge - where they arguably should have snatched at least a draw.
"They are a good team; they are an offensive team. We had many chances in the second half to score a minimum one goal," he said.
"But at the end, it's in the past."
The injury-hit Reds are coming off a 5-2 loss to Western Sydney and are set to welcome back James Troisi from a quad injury, though Ben Halloran will miss the game after tweaking his hamstring in training.
"We have to deal with some injured players so we have to be creative," Adelaide coach Gertjan Verbeek said.
"And of course, you try to find solutions for the bad defence we had in the (previous) game and we hope we find a good strategy against Melbourne Victory because I assume they will play differently than our (last) opponent.
"So I hope we're in a good shape - we beat them twice and I hope we can beat them again."
STATS THAT MATTER:
* Adelaide have won their past four A-League games against Victory
* Victory have won nine of their past 11 home games against Adelaide (L2), including their past three
* Victory are winless in their past six regular-season games (D2, L4); the last time they went longer without an A-League was an eight-match stretch in late 2007 (D3, L5).
Stats provided by Opta
Australian Associated Press
