Melbourne Victory midfielder expects a “fighting reaction” from his side against the Wellington Phoenix this Sunday after a slow start to the season.

The Victory sit seventh with just one win from their opening four – with three of those being at home – but despite the poor start Broxham says the team must not dwell on previous losses.

“It’s [about] a fighting reaction to show the fans that we can, it’s to go out and win home game, a game of football and I think its competing and making sure we’re winning our battles.

“[We’re] obviously not happy about the loss but how far do you go? If you are going to be so far down about it then it does start affecting your confidence so you need to accept what’s happened and accept it wasn’t good enough and you have to get up because we have a game where we can send a good message and get a big reaction.

“It’s a long season so we need to work on whatever we need to work on and pick ourselves up now and you have to be up and about and ready for a reaction on the weekend.

“We’ve started poorly other years and we’ve been OK and being around the dressing room everyone’s fine everyone’s up and about.”

The Victory and Phoenix did battle four times last season, the all three of their league meetings ending in draws before the Victory knocked the Phoenix out in the Elimination Final.

Since their last meeting, both clubs have brought in a plethora of new personnel and will be equally desperate to leave AAMI Park on Sunday with the three points.

“It’s a home game you want to send a clear message that we’re not mucking around and we are Melbourne Victory and want to be at the top end every year, you can only go so far with excuses I think you have to put runs on the board and that’s what we’ll be looking to do,” Broxham said.

The Victory will again be without Socceroos Andrew Nabbout and Robbie Kruse, as well as Tim Hoogland but the line-up should feature captain Ola Toivonen who received treatment on his ankle midway through last week’s match.

“[Toivonen’s] okay he may need a few more days than normal but he’s going alright,” Broxham said.

athossirianos
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First year Journalism student at RMIT University. Looking to get the truth out while having a bit of fun.