View from the Victory, Volume 18: Melbourne Regain Normalcy, Drop Another Match

In the eyes of the Melbourne Victory, normalcy is dropping matches left and right. Of course, the Blue and White Brigade do not like this level of normalcy, but what can those supporters really do?

 The fact of the matter is, Melbourne is simply playing terrible football and may not make the Finals Series in the A-League without godly intervention of the highest order. Indeed, any hopes for intervention ahead of Saturday's contest with the Brisbane Roar were shot down post-haste.

 "It's easy for me, because I've been around players all my life," 42-year-old manager Jim Magilton told Marco Monteverde of the Melbourne Herald Sun.

 "I'd heard the bits and pieces being thrown about regarding Harry, but I've been very comfortable with the hype (surrounding Kewell)."

 As for the rest of the team, they came to Suncorp Stadium with a time-to-put-up mentality.

"We beat the league leaders so if it was good enough to beat them, I'd like to think that if we can replicate it we can give ourselves every chance,'' Magilton told Paul Purcell of The Age. ''There are very few games left so we need to know the importance of each game. This is the most important one because it's the next one.''

 A back-and-forth encounter at Suncorp saw the Roar win a 3-2 slugfest over the Victory. Kewell recorded a brace in the ninth and 50th minutes of play, but the penalty issues regarding Melbourne came to bite them in the rear. Henrique's conversion in the 39th minute became the eventual winner.

 Besart Berisha also recorded braces for Brisbane in the first and 32nd minutes.

 Melbourne is now 5-7-10 (25 points) and will need to win out to have a shot at making the postseason.

 Up next for the Melbourne Victory is a match with Gold Coast United at Skilled Park. Kickoff is scheduled for Feb. 25 at 6:45 p.m. AEST.