Having sent Sydney FC crashing to their only loss so far this season, Dylan McGowan believes the Wanderers have the belief to make lightning strike twice in the second Sydney Derby of the season on Saturday.
While Sydney have had the wood on the Red & Black over the past few seasons, the Wanderers turned it around in Round 3 this season producing a gallant effort to beat them 1-0 at Wanderland.
It was an important victory and one McGowan said will hold the Red & Black, who are coming off a 3-1 win over Central Coast last week, in great stead when they travel to Jubilee Stadium
“For us, we have to have the belief. We beat them earlier this season at Bankwest and that was their only defeat this season,” McGowan said during an interview on the Big Sports Breakfast.
“So they will have bit of determination to rectify that.
“Obviously I know Sydney well given my brother (Ryan) plays for them. I’ve watched a lot of their games.
“Derbies are always about the team who wants it more and will put the most on the line, so, in the position we are in, we can’t afford not to turn up on Saturday night.”
McGowan believes the Wanderers took a lot of positivity from the win over Sydney.
“To be honest, Sydney dominated that game and probably our goalkeeper was our best player that night and a lot of things fell for us that haven’t fallen for us throughout the season.
“But, we hung in and fought for our lives.
“The most import thing than night was breaking their streak against us, it was our biggest goal and it didn’t matter how we did it.
“We just had to get over line so that going into the next game against them there was no doubt, no mental block or anxiety thinking we had to win.”
McGowan, who joined the club at the start of the season, said the transition to caretaker coach Jean-Paul de Marigny has been seamless.
de Marigny was assistant to Markus Babbel but took the reins when the German departed the club several weeks ago.
“In terms of knowing him (JPD) and knowing him as a person not much has changed at all. He is acting and keeping himself exactly the same as he was,” said McGowan.
“He is starting to bring in his own ideas. As a number two you can’t go above the head coach so there’s slight changes and tweaks and hopefully they continue to work.
“Against the Mariners we probably looked our most dangerous we have done in a long time. The boys need to buy into it.”
The Red & Black are just four points out of the Top Six and a win on Saturday would be a huge boost to their Finals prospects as well as sending a message that the club is still a major force in the Hyundai A-League.
