Ending your lockdown with City football
Although the match has been moved to a neutral venue in Sydney and will be played behind closed doors, City fans can send off Melbourne’s lockdown in style – with some City football!
With the boys coming off the back of a draw in the Melbourne Derby and looking to finish the season on a high note, expect a fired-up City team to take to the pitch on Thursday night against the Jets.
Return of Nabbout and Atkinson
We’ve received a huge boost with the return of injured duo Andrew Nabbout and Nathaniel Atkinson to the squad for Thursday night.
Both Atkinson (hamstring – 10 weeks) and Nabbout (adductor – 4 weeks) will be hoping to get some minutes in ahead of the finals series.
Capping off a brilliant season at home
It’s been a quality season across the board and a big part of it has been our exceptional home form. In 12 home matches at AAMI Park so far this season, your City boys have lost just once (in late January), winning ten and drawing one.
Although the game will be played at a neutral venue, it is still a City ‘home game’ and the boys will be aiming to improve their impressive home record even further.
More opportunities for the youngsters?
One of the most exciting storylines from our 1-1 Melbourne Derby draw was 15-year-old attacker Max Caputo coming off the bench to make his A-League debut. It was a deserved reward for Caputo who has been lighting it up in the NPL, scoring 9 goals in 8 games – including a bag of 4 in our most recent fixture against Ballarat City.
The former Essendon Royals product who joined the City Academy four years ago has been training with the senior squad since pre-season and regularly impressing the first team coaches.
Another chance to test things ahead of Finals
We’ve seen some experimental starting lineups named in our last couple of fixtures with youngsters Marco Tilio, Naoki Tsubaki and Raphael Borges Rodrigues leading the line in our most recent game.
Thursday night’s match gives Head Coach Patrick Kisnorbo one last look at his squad before he starts preparing for our home Semi Final on June 18.
