Melbourne City head coach Dario Vidosic is backing his charges to learn from their mistakes in their Liberty A-League rematch against a resurgent Western Sydney Wanderers.
The Wanderers pulled off one of the upsets of the season with a 2-0 defeat of City earlier this month, their first win in almost a year.
Kat Smith’s Wanderers, boosted by the addition of Philippines international Sarina Bolden, backed it up with a win over ladder-leaders Western United and a goalless draw against reigning champions Melbourne Victory.
Second-placed City will be coming off three games in a week when they host the Wanderers at Casey Fields on Saturday, but Vidosic expects an improved performance.
“As a young team, it felt like we just wanted to put the result to bed early,” he said.
“We knew it was going to be tough and we just forced the issue a little bit too much. We were caught in transition a couple of times.
“We’ve learned from it … we will look again to assert our dominance and fix a couple of things that we probably didn’t execute quite as well last time.”
Vidosic was pleased by his side bouncing back from the Wanderers loss with a 3-0 win over Adelaide United before sharing the points with crosstown rivals Victory.
He expects his players to be better-prepared for the Wanderers, particularly import Bolden who made her Liberty A-League debut in their previous clash.
“It’s always hard when a player comes in and there’s no real footage on her,” Vidosic said.
“We watched a little bit of her with the Philippines but there wasn’t too much footage so we only saw little bits and pieces.
“She’s a good player that we know we have to be aware of tomorrow. If we turn over the ball carelessly then their transition becomes a big problem.”
Vidosic said import Maria Rojas, who is on World Cup qualifying duties with Chile, and injured attacker Holly McNamara were both likely to return in early-March after the international break.
