Buoyed by being able to play their cut-throat elimination final in Tarneit, Western United are adamant they can hold off an emotion-charged Adelaide United.
United will play a final at Ironbark Fields, which has a capacity of 5000, for the first time on Friday night, instead of at the far bigger AAMI Park, in a boost to their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
"Massive, massive," coach John Aloisi said.
"Straight away when we finished the Auckland game, my talks with the club was 'we have to make sure we're playing here in Tarneit at Ironbark.'
"Not only for in terms of that we love playing here and we really enjoy it, but for the growth of the club in general.
"I'm pretty sure they're telling me that it's going to be full - they've virtually sold all the tickets.
"Sometimes with these little boutique stadiums, when you have a full house, even though it might not be 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 - they can create a really good atmosphere, and we're expecting that tomorrow night."
Adelaide, who snuck into finals after Sydney FC lost their final two games, are driven by the emotion of coach Carl Veart finishing up at season's end.
"If Adelaide have got that in the back of their mind, that's that's their story, not our story," Aloisi said.
"Our story is that we're playing our first finals game at Ironbark.
"We've had a good season so far. We want to keep going, and we have to make sure that we perform at our best to beat Adelaide."
The game could also be Aloisi's last, given he is out of contract and season's end.
He has parked talks to focus on finals.
"I haven't thought about that too much," he said.
"I actually don't think about, 'this is my last game, or last training session', or anything like that.
"It's more the focus on winning the game, making sure that I'll do my job, that the players are also ready to do their job.
"And once the season is done and dusted, whenever that is, or wherever that is, then we'll sit down and start to think about what's next."
