MELBOURNE City coach Warren Joyce says Bruce Kamau is capable of plying his trade in the English Championship, the league Aaron Mooy took by storm last season.

But his thoughts on his side’s upset 2-1 derby win over Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium were far more measured, with the Englishman far from getting carried away by his side’s second win in its first two outings.

“It’s just three points early in the season,” Joyce said.

media_camera Bruce Kamau scored the derby winner for City.

“Everybody’s finding their feet anyway. The biggest thing for me was to come here and not be bullied.

“You’ve come to a team who was in the grand final last year, they’re a good side, they’ve been together for a while, they all know their jobs, all know their roles.

“We’re still a new side finding our feet, finding a way to play and dominate possession.

NEW BOY: No-name marquee City’s derby saviour

“When you’ve got all those things as new players, they don’t really understand each other all that well. Some of them have also come in and are nowhere near as fit as they can be yet, they’re playing a little bit on heart, on memory.

“So considering all of those things, the main objective was to come here and give the fans a performance to be proud of.”

Joyce said midfielder Luke Brattan missed out after suffering a knock in training on Friday and said Neil Kilkenny (back) was not chosen to replace him because he is not fit enough yet.

Kamau scored the winner to go with the brace he scored in last week’s 2-0 win over Brisbane.

The former Adelaide championship-winning winger only scored one goal in 26 games last season.

But Joyce isn’t surprised by the form surge.

“He’s capable of doing that, I think he’s a good player,” he said.

“I thought that even before I came to the country, watching him play for Adelaide - I thought was an outstanding player, to be fair.

media_camera Catch me if you can!

“Certainly, if you’re watching Aaron Mooy ... and looking at players who you think could play in English football, he’s certainly one that could play in the English championship, easily.

“The demands on him are to improve certain things about his game and goalscoring is one of the aspects.”

Asked about Brattan and Kilkenny, Joyce said: “Bratts had an injury yesterday in training and Killa is coming back from a back injury.

“It’s one of them that, you could start him, he’s trained really well this week. But when you’ve had a back injury I don’t think it’s great if you’re a substitute and you’re sat down for a while.

“You either start or you don’t, with those types of injuries.”