Coach Tony Popovic has challenged Melbourne Victory to turn their flashes of form into two wins and avoid the A-League Men wooden spoon.
With their finals hopes over, Victory (25 points) face second-from-bottom Macarthur (26) at AAMI Park on Sunday in their penultimate game of the season, hoping to leapfrog the Bulls.
"We have to turn the recent performances into a win," Popovic told reporters.
"We've got a home game, we're at the bottom, we don't want to finish there.
"But I can only speak for what I've seen the last few days at training, and the boys have been fantastic. They want to turn the recent performances into more wins.
"No one wants that (the wooden spoon). No one wants to have that on their record.
"A few of our boys have got that, they don't want another one. And the many of us that don't have that certainly don't want it."
Popovic admitted his side's poor start to the season had ultimately cost them after the Victory finished second and made the final four last season.
"I've seen the performances really improve in the second half of the season, the new recruits have done really well," he said.
"We've suffered a lot for various reasons, long-term injuries etc, but the first half of the year is what hurt us.
"We lost nine out of 13 games and when you do that everything has to be perfect in the second half."
Victory are without Roderick Miranda (suspension) with either Connor Chapman or Leigh Broxham to partner Damien Da Silva at centre-back.
Macarthur are also effectively playing for pride.
The Bulls' finals hopes are still mathematically alive but they must win both their games and have other results go their way.
"We definitely want to finish off the season strong so we are looking to win the match," coach Mile Sterjovski told Macarthur's website.
"We know it is going to be a difficult game for us, I believe Victory are a well-coached team."
