Western Sydney coach Carl Robinson will not accept any excuses as the Wanderers prepare to face a rejuvenated Melbourne City in the A-League.
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In one of the quirks of this season's fixtures, the Wanderers will back up at Bankwest Stadium on Tuesday night just three days after a dramatic 3-2 loss against Adelaide United.
For their part, City have had an entire week off after upsetting Sydney FC in their first outing in 16 days.
It will be Western Sydney's third hit-out in nine days - starting with a 2-2 draw with Wellington on February 21 - and the Wanderers have no choice but to get on with business.
Robinson said playing three games in little more than a week is "never easy" but he was more focused on cleaning up fourth-placed Wanderers' defensive efforts than complaining about the schedule.
Western Sydney conceded easy first-half goals against Adelaide but fought back to almost pinch a point.
"You can't defend like that. If you defend like that you leave yourselves open to losing games of football," Robinson said.
Daniel Georgievski and Jordan O'Doherty have been included in the squad for Tuesday, but Tass Mourdoukoutas is still recovering from an ankle injury.
City will be hoping to continue their recent domination of Western Sydney by winning a fifth game from their last seven starts against the Wanderers.
"That performance against Sydney was very, very good. They've got good players. That Sydney game showed what they're about," Robinson said of City.
City striker Jamie Maclaren scored twice in the grand-final rematch against the Sky Blues, which City won 3-2, but his coach Patrick Kisnorbo is working to push the Socceroo to even greater heights.
"You always try to improve the person and the player," Kisnorbo said.
"I'm not going to let him do what he wants, if we did that then we wouldn't improve as a team. Jamie works hard day in day out."
STATS THAT MATTER
*Western Sydney will be hoping to avoid back-to-back defeats at Bankwest Stadium for the second time ever.
*Melbourne City have lost their last three games in New South Wales.
*City striker Jamie Maclaren has loved playing the Wanderers, scoring 13 goals in 13 games against Western Sydney.
Australian Associated Press
