Thank God that Australia has a finals system, Melbourne City coach Michael Valkanis declared after his 10-man team had eventually capitulated to league leaders Sydney 3-1 on Friday night.
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The City Blues (as opposed to the Sky Blues, who seem to think they have trademarked that particular nickname) have every right to be grateful that Australia does not operate a first-past-the-post system like almost every other league in the world.
Assuming they make the playoffs – which, from the position they currently occupy with 30 points, they certainly should – City will at least have a puncher's chance of landing some silverware to add to the FA Cup trophy they claimed in November.
But on current results that is about all they can look forward to, given they are now 20 points behind Sydney.
The best they can probably hope for (barring a disastrous collapse by second-placed Melbourne Victory) is to finish third or fourth and secure at least one home final. But with Brisbane and Perth pushing hard there is no guarantee that City will do that unless results pick up.
Their much vaunted firepower has not been as effective as last season's swashbuckling attack and they have missed the injured Danish centre-back Michael Jakobsen, who has been out with a calf injury.
Valkanis hopes that he will be back in time for next weekend's visit to the Central Coast Mariners and he would certainly add stability at the back.
It looked as though they turned the corner with that gritty draw against Brisbane and the 5-1 romp in Wellington, and there were mitigating factors for the loss to Sydney.
When defender Manny Muscat, who had already given away a penalty, was sent off in the 39th minute the score was 1-1 and City had had the best of the game.
But they were never likely to hold out against Graham Arnold's team after that.
"I think the first 35 minutes was going according to plan. We were very happy with the game and I guess sometimes you don't expect you're going to get a red card," said Valkanis.
"That changed everything and the strategy we had put in place for the second half as well."
He defended his errant defender Muscat, who conceded a penalty and then lost the ball to Alex Brosque before fouling him to earn his second yellow card.
"I won't point the finger at him, he's an important member of our squad and he's done extremely well [in] the season so far and sometimes in football these things happen."
