IN the Premier League, each rung a team can climb on the ladder is worth millions.

In the A-League, the players are fighting for professional pride — for a place in the finals, and a tilt at glory.

It’s one of the peculiarities of the Australian system that when the dust settles on the league table, six go forward — and this year the battle for sixth is the most acute contest left in terms of the likely final make-up of the ladder.

The Wanderers and the Mariners are in the hunt for sixth. Source: AAP

No matter that finishing sixth or even fifth never translates into finals success — hope springs eternal after all. Debate continues every year about the merit of six teams from 10 being rewarded with an place in the play-offs, but in the absence of promotion and relegation, this is the most noteworthy aspect to the bottom half of the table.

So it’s hard not to want this four-way battle for sixth to keep slugging on until the last round if possible. With the proliferation of apparently shock results in the A-League, that’s entirely feasible.

The Wanderers limped home from Shanghai ready for their fifth match in 15 days, three of them lost. Defender Brendon Hamill admitted morale was at a low ebb, but many of those involved in losing 4-1 to Shanghai SIPG will have to answer A-League duty on Saturday night.

“We don’t have a big enough squad to be able to field two different teams (for each competition) so there will be players who will have to back up,” said coach Tony Popovic.

At least it is the most favourable fixture possible, at home to rock-bottom Adelaide, really the only side with nothing to play for. Around Western Sydney, the other three teams still harbouring hopes of making the finals — Central Coast, Newcastle and Wellington — all host teams above them.

Tony Popovic is confident the Wanderers can make a playoff run Source: News Corp Australia

The trio of opponents, Melbourne City, Perth and Brisbane respectively, are in a mini contest of their own to see who gets a home final by finishing third or fourth, and which will finish fifth and hence must travel.

It might seem perverse the Wanderers, Mariners and Jets still can make the finals with records of five wins apiece in 21 games — Wellington have an extra victory — but the fact Central Coast and Newcastle are still in touch with the top six is a relative triumph for their coaches, given the circumstances and timing of their appointments just a few weeks from the start of the season.

Western Sydney rightly have grander ambitions, after three grand finals in four seasons. Popovic repeats the line ad infinitum that he still believes his side can make the grand final, and finally win one.

They do have respite to look forward to, thanks to round 23 being split over two weekends precisely to give the Asian Champions League entrants some breathing space.

But the harsh truth is only Adelaide have scored fewer goals than Western Sydney. There is still time to rectify that, but if this season is proving anything, it’s the value of the 15-goal-a-season striker the Wanderers have never had.