Muscat keeps in-form Melbourne Victory grounded

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat doesn't believe in looking too far ahead.

Kevin Muscat isn’t getting carried away by Melbourne Victory’s win (Getty Images) Source: Getty Images Asia Pacific

The Hyundai A-League is LIVE on Fridays 7.30pm (AEST) on SBS ONE, SBS HD and online.

And so his team's 3-0 dismantling of Wellington Phoenix on Sunday is no cause for celebration, beyond that merited by the knowledge of a job well done.

Melbourne totally dominated Phoenix, Gui Finkler scoring the opening goal after barely 30 seconds.

An own goal, and an Archie Thompson tap-in completed the rout to put Victory back on top of the A-League standings for the first time since its fourth-round 2-0 win over Wellington in early November.

Muscat's focus is centred only on Melbourne's next game - a clash against Newcastle Jets at AAMI Park on Friday.

The play-offs just aren't relevant.

Yet.

"That sort of stuff is that far away, you'd be very naive to fall into that trap," Muscat said.

"What it does do is give me confidence that when we play good football, we've got a good chance of getting a result.

"We go into next week's game with a bit of confidence, and that's all it does. Nothing more."

After hosting the 10th-placed Jets, Melbourne faces seventh-ranked Brisbane Roar on its home turf, then winds up its regular season with a game at home against eighth-placed Central Coast Mariners.

On the face of it, that's a fairly gentle run-in to the play-offs.

Muscat, however, makes no judgment call on the quality of Victory's opposition, with his focus solely on Melbourne's own performance.

"We apply pressure on ourselves and that's the greatest pressure of all," he said.

"Anything external shouldn't affect us."

With the top five so tightly grouped, Muscat says it's more important than ever to concentrate on the job in hand against Newcastle.

"We won't look any further than that."