Western United welcome Brisbane Roar to the AAMI park on Friday morning in round 10 of the 2022-23 Australian A-League season aiming to pick up a third consecutive victory.
The visitors, on the other hand, make the trip seeking to continue their recent upturn in form, which has yielded six league games on the bounce without a defeat.
Match preview
Western United claimed a second 1-0 win in a row as they narrowly saw off the threat of Melbourne Victory 1-0 in the sides' meeting on Boxing Day.
John Aloisi's men opened the scoring on the stroke of half time through Joshua Risdon, and that was enough to secure all three points in a hard-fought contest.
Consequently, Western United have moved up to 11th place in the Australian A-League table, two points adrift of the last playoff spot with a game in hand.
Next up is the challenge of an opposing outfit with just one victory from the last six editions of this fixture across all competitions, losing the other five.
Off the back of two straight wins on home turf without conceding, Friday's hosts have turned a corner in front of their fans and will head into this one with the wind in their sails.
Brisbane Roar had to settle for a share of the spoils when they played host to Western Sydney Wanderers at the Moreton Daily Stadium on Friday.
Warren Moon's men fell behind to Oliver Bozanic's opener in the 18th minute, before levelling matters just past the hour mark through Carlo Armiento.
Having picked up 11 points from eight games this term, the Lions sit eighth in the league standings, one point clear of their next opponents and as many behind a place in the postseason.
Unbeaten in six of their most recent seven games on enemy territory leading up to Friday's contest, the away side have developed a knack of getting the job done away from home, which is set to be put to the test.
Team News
Nikolai Topor-Stanley was given his marching orders in Western United's last outing, and the Australian is ineligible to participate on Friday.
This should see Jacob Tratt earn a recall to the lineup for a fifth starting appearance in seven matches since returning from an injury layoff.
Brisbane Roar's Charlie Austin is an injury doubt for this one, having missed his side's stalemate against Western Sydney due to a muscle problem.
Should Austin be deemed unfit to participate, 22-year-old midfielder Rahmat Akbari is expected to be named in the XI for the second game running.
Western United possible starting lineup:
Young; Garuccio, Imai, Tratt, Risdon; Doumbia, Kilkenny; Wales, Troisi, Pain; Prijovic
Brisbane Roar possible starting lineup:
Holmes; Hingert, Neville, Aldred, Courtney-Perkins; Mileusnic, O'Shea, Trewin, Armiento; Akbari, Knowles
We say: Western United 2-1 Brisbane Roar
Given Western United's dominance of this fixture of late, the hosts are favourites to come away with all three points here, and we are tipping them to live up to expectations and get the job done at the sound of the final whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
