So far, the strategy has come up short, but in a season characterised by its closeness (save for runaway leaders Central Coast) no one will completely write off Victory, a club armed with several potential match-winners, until it is definitively out of contention. Coach Jim Magilton, who is relishing the task ahead despite a less than auspicious two points from three games during his first month in charge, is optimistic that he has the quality within his squad to mount a late season challenge. Magilton believes that if his side can build momentum, it can be a threat to any team in the country. The former Ipswich Town player and manager and Queens Park Rangers boss points to his own experience as a player and coach in the English Championship, a topsy-turvy, brutally competitive league where teams strike form and get on a roll and surf the wave all the way to the Premiership. ''To start winning games has to be the ambition here for me,'' he said ahead of the game with Gold Coast. ''The objective from the start of the season was to be top two, well that has fallen well short. But if we can get a few wins, you can build momentum.

''I have seen it loads of times before in the Championship where teams who have come from nowhere get into the play-offs and get promoted. ''I was at Ipswich where we were leading the Championship, leading the Championship, fell short, got into the play-offs and couldn't raise the level again [while another team on the up swept into the Premiership]. ''I have had three weeks with Victory and enjoyed it immensely so far and I can't fault the players' application and attitude in training, which has been top-class. We have to try to transfer an awful lot of that from training into a game situation.'' With speculation clouding the future of star import Carlos Hernandez, who has been linked with a move to Adelaide and overseas, Magilton declared he would like the Costa Rican international to be part of his squad for the remainder of the season, although he admitted that he might not have the final say. ''He's in a batch with a lot of players whose contracts are up [at the end of the season]. He has been outstanding for the club, and on his day we know that he's a match-winner.

''But it would be unfair of me to start categorising one player like him and leaving out the others whose contracts are up. ''I think what we do as a club is wait to the end of the season and sit down and decide what is going to happen. Loading ''Would we show him the door? No, I don't want him to go. I want him here for the rest of the season and I want him producing, like I want them all to do. ''A lot of the lads whose contracts are up are playing for the future.''