Coach Tony Popovic has urged Melbourne Victory to show they are genuine contenders when they chase their second win on the bounce against a resurgent Western United.
Victory returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 triumph over Adelaide United away on Saturday, with Bruno Fornaroli scoring a brace.
Popovic's charges face a tight turnaround to Thursday night's game at AAMI Park.
Sitting on 34 points, just six off top spot, there is plenty of reason to believe they can challenge leaders Central Coast and second-placed Wellington (both 40 points)
"We really focused on the lead-up to the Adelaide game for a whole week on getting our game on track, getting our work rate to the levels required to be a team that wants to challenge and wants to win titles," Popovic said.
"We saw signs of that. It wasn't perfect, but certainly a big improvement. We need to improve again.
"The attitude is we have to work extremely hard, you have to earn everything you get.
"Then we're hoping to see more quality moments, add a few more of those moments from the Adelaide game into this one.
"If we can do that and have that same discipline and work rate, we give ourselves a great chance to get a win before we head into the break."
Fornaroli is back in form after going away for the Asian Cup, then breaking his hand in his return game.
"There was a sign against Adelaide that you could see he was back to himself," Popovic said.
"He was moving physically, he looks in better shape again as he was prior to going away - and it showed.
"His all-round game was good, his link-up play was excellent, and in the end he scored two and really should have had another two or three."
Victory scored two goals in injury time to snatch a dramatic 2-1 win over United on February 20.
But John Aloisi's charges have improved significantly since then.
United are unbeaten in three and have recorded back-to-back wins over Perth and Western Sydney.
"It's a very important game," Popovic said.
"We're at the business end of the season. We know what to expect tomorrow night, a really tough encounter.
"We know recently how the game transpired against Western United where we scored two really late goals, and we expect another really tough match against a team that's in good form, they're playing well.
"So it'll be difficult, but we've got to build on the performance we had against Adelaide."
