Knowing the quality that is in United’s squad, captain Jon McKain is certain the Reds’ fortunes have to turn around.
Knowing the quality that is in United-s squad, captain Jon McKain is certain the Reds- fortunes have to turn around.
Reflecting on his first nine games as Adelaide United captain, McKain admits it has been one of the toughest periods in his career, the Brisbane born defender and the Reds coming under increasing fire as they currently occupy ninth spot on the table.
But McKain has been around professional football long enough to not get caught up by the criticism and is maintaining belief in his ability and those around him.
“You-ve got to take it (criticism). It-s a professional sport and you take the ups and downs, but for me personally I haven-t focused too much on it this week,” McKain said.
“I know when you do bad there are a lot of knives thrown and people are looking for you and that-s the nature of the game, but we-ve got good enough players and for me personally, I know I-m a good enough player to get out of the slump I-m in at the moment.”
“Reading that kind of criticism doesn-t really help, so you take it on board and use it in a positive way, but like I said, we want to look forward, we-ve still got a long way to go in this season and that-s the focus at the moment.”
“It has been frustrating for us. Everyone knows it hasn-t been a great start and it-s been well documented, but we know we can turn it around, it-s that simple,” McKain said.
“There has been so much negativity but we know we can still turn our fortunes around and we-re not going to gain anything by dwelling on what has been, so we-re going into Victory this week confident, we-ve had a good week on the track, the boys coming back have freshened it up a bit and hopefully in the next few weeks we can build a bit of a platform, so what better way to start than against Melbourne.”
Any Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory clash usually has enough incentive for players from both sides to rise for the occasion, but the current situation both sides find themselves in adds even more significance to the contest.
Despite only having had one taste of the Reds and Victory rivalry, McKain knows Saturday night-s encounter at Etihad is a chance for the Reds to rediscover that hardnosed competitiveness, which is a feature Adelaide and Melbourne matches have become renowned for.
“It-s obviously a big game for us. We know what-s happened in the past and we-re looking forward to the future and we know what three points will mean to us,” McKain said.
“It-s also a special game for the fans and for the town – it-s a good rivalry with Victory and the first game here against them (in Week 2) we did quite well and we saw how happy it made the fans, so we-re hoping to do the same over there.”
