With the A-League Men as close as it's ever been, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City are ready for one of the most high-stakes regular season derbies of recent years.
While leaders Auckland are outright top on 36 points, just six points separate second-placed Adelaide (31) and eighth-placed Western Sydney (25), while champions Central Coast are ninth on 21 after 19 rounds.
Victory sit third on 28 points with City breathing down their neck on 27, ahead of Saturday night's derby at AAMI Park.
"This is the first season I've been in the A-League where first to eighth has been so close," City defender Nathaniel Atkinson said.
"So it's up to us to ride that wave and sort of build a gap between us and the people below us."
City will have to cover the loss of Steven Ugarkovic (hamstring) but are set to regain Kai Trewin, Andreas Kuen and Samuel Souprayen from injury.
"We're riding the roller coaster a little bit. It's up to us to steady that ship," Atkinson said.
"We did so well for so long with the injuries that we had, and still grinding out results.
"And then we went three games of losses, so it was good to bounce back obviously last week against Perth."
Former Hearts defender Atkinson has had his fair share of fiery derbies in Scotland and is ready for the Victory home crowd.
"It'll be hostile but I love that, and all the other boys love that, and it'll be good for the younger boys to experience that," he said.
"When you walk out there for 90 minutes and you get the boos for that, and you get the result at the end - it's good to just let the football do the talking and you walk back into the changeroom satisfied."
Victory, last year's grand finalists, are coming off a hard-fought 1-0 win over Wellington and have won three of their past four matches under Arthur Diles.
Attacker Reno Piscopo is adamant Victory can again contend.
"It's that tight so anyone at the end of the day can can lift up (the trophy). You've gotta take it week by week and secure three points each week to get there," Piscopo said.
"When you win, you can't get too happy. When you lose, you can't dwell about it too much.
"It's a big game. Derbies are always big matches, important matches."
