| PHOTO: Jim Webster |
17-year-old fullback Scott Galloway will make his Melbourne Victory debut in the Melbourne Derby tomorrow night instead of the suspended Diogo Ferreira, as Victory coach Ange Postecoglou believes age is irrelevant.
The former AIS Captain only joined the Victory last week, but impressed in training and in the National Youth League win over the Heart last weekend.
“We brought him in and obviously we’ve been following him for a while, and he’s a good young kid and he did well in the youth team and he’s trained well with us and he’s got a good head on his shoulders.
“I’ve got a lot of time for him and I think he’s going to be a really good acquisition for us and if he gets a start tomorrow then he’ll kick-start his Melbourne Victory career.”
But Postecoglou isn’t worried that Galloway is only seventeen and believes the versatile fullback will handle the derby pressure.
“Age is irrelevant to me, I look at the quality of the player(s).
“I don’t think age has got anything to do with it [the pressure], I’ve seen thirty-year-olds crumble on the big stage.
“At the end of the day he plays for Melbourne Victory so we can’t find a game where we’re going to play in front of three thousand people for him, so he wants to be a Melbourne Victory player that means playing in front of big crowds, big games and I’m confident he’ll play well. ”
According to Postecoglou the game will be huge, regardless of it being a derby.
“Look it’s an important game for both clubs, obviously we want to keep pursuing that top spot and they’re pretty desperate to make finals, so that shows regardless of the derby aspect it’s going to be a big game tomorrow with both clubs looking for a result,” he told the press this morning.
The Victory are undefeated in their past four games and Postecoglou hopes that their form can be maintained in the run home to the finals.
“You want to play in finals, obviously, and you want to win the competition, but the key to that is that good form going into finals so we’ve had a steady rise and we just have to maintain that and prove that over this last third of the season to make sure when where ever we finish we’re hitting the finals in good form,” the former Roar coach said.
The country’s most successful domestic coach is pleased that his side has improved since the last derby in December, which the Victory won in stoppage-time.
“We’re going well. Obviously you want the results and the results have come in the last month pretty consistently. But more pleasing for me is that we are playing better football now than we were a month ago, ever since the last derby I think,” he said.
There’s still a third left of the season and Postecoglou believes there is no excuses for the Victory to push in the final nine games as the Melburnians hope to claim silverware.
“Ultimately there is still a fair bit of points to be won between now and then, but I kind of like the foundation we’ve built, there’s no excuses for us now. I think we really got to go for it from here to the end of the season, “ he said.
