Bidding to force their way back into the A-League Men top six, Sydney FC must not take the threat of wooden-spoon contenders Western United lightly, coach Ufuk Talay insists.
Fresh off a gutsy draw with 10 men against Melbourne Victory last weekend, Talay is warning his Sky Blues they will have to lift once more.
United, winless in their last five outings, are stuck to the bottom of the table with just seven points from 13 fixtures.
Their position belies the calibre of their squad, which includes Brazilian maverick Daniel Penha and young striker Noah Botic.
But despite United's abject run of form, Talay believes John Aloisi’s side have shown they could cause an upset in Hobart on Saturday.
“Western United have been playing some really good football,” Talay said.
“In their last game against Western Sydney they pressed quite well and they created some good moments but just didn't capitalise.
“Western Sydney created that moment where they scored and won that game 1-0.
“The game that we played against them (in late December) was a good game and there were moments that they picked us off.”
Talay will be without striker Patrick Wood, who was handed a one-game suspension after being shown a straight red card in last week’s draw with Victory.
Sydney appealed against his ban, but despite widespread condemnation of the dismissal Football Australia upheld the decision.
“It’s not easy being a referee, whatever decision you make you’re always upsetting somebody,” Talay said.
“We went to appeal it as we saw it as an obvious error, but we can’t change it so we’ll move on.
“We’ve got Fabio (Gomes) and we’ve got the option of Mitch (Glasson) as well.
“We’ve previously played a game with no No.9s so there's lots of ways we can play.
“Fabio has been working well in training this week so we’ll see what decision we make.”
Talay said it was unlikely his side would add a player before the transfer window closes next week.
Sydney will be without Joel King and Jack Rodwell for at least the next month due to injury.
