news.com.au — Australia’s #1 news site Sydney FC defender Alex Wilkinson insists trio of wins over Melbourne Victory gives Sky Blues edge

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NO side has dominated the Big Blue __like Sydney FC have this season — and that record will play on the minds of Melbourne Victory in the grand final.

Sydney centreback Alex Wilkinson certainly thinks so in the wake of his side’s three victories over their grand final opponents during the regular season.

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It’s the first time one side has won all three games in a campaign, and for all that the margins in each were fine, Wilkinson said it reinforced his side’s sense of certainty.

Two of those wins came after Sydney had fallen behind, and Wilkinson said Victory had to achieve what no one else could if they were to be crowned champions.

Sydney FC players training ahead of the A-League grand final. Source: News Corp Australia

“They’ll say it’s a one-off game but of course we’re going to take a lot of confidence from beating them three times,” he said. “You can say the season doesn’t matter, but we’ve got a fantastic record at home.

“Defensively we’ve conceded very few goals at home which will give us confidence going into the game and we’ll have a huge crowd there as well.

“All those little things will work in our favour and they will have to come up here and beat us on our own patch which no one has done yet. At the start of the season we wanted to make Allianz a really difficult place to come to, and it was actually a goal to be undefeated at home.

“We’ve done well to achieve that, and getting the grand final at home is a huge advantage.”

Even the prospect of facing joint Golden Boot winner Besart Berisha didn’t disturb Wilkinson’s belief, especially after Sydney had kept him goalless in all three games against them.

“No more than anyone else, we won’t focus on them too much,” he said. “You give the opposition the respect they deserve and do your video work on their strengths and weaknesses. Every game is about us and what we’ll do with the ball and without.”