Van ´t Schip focused on finals

Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip says his team will not get carried away despite beating A-League leaders Central Coast Mariners.

Eli Babalj struck the only goal in the 50th minute of Sunday’s match at AAMI Park, registering Heart’s first ever win over the Mariners.

The result sees them move up to fifth place on the table, three points clear of Sydney in seventh with just four rounds of the season remaining.

Despite their promising situation, Van ‘t Schip said the club will not be looking any further than next week’s meeting with reigning premiers Brisbane Roar.

“I don’t want to count, I just want to look ahead and get as much as possible points and it’s easy to have a calculation … but I don’t think we should do that,” he said.

“The most important thing is to look ahead now – Brisbane now is a very difficult game.”

“They are back in their best way of playing and it’s going to be a hard game up there, so I’m not going to count.”

“For us now, what counts is getting into the finals.”

With close to a full squad of players to choose from, Van ‘t Schip is confident his side can start to build momentum following Sunday’s win.

“Very important three points,” he said.

“Winning two in a row and getting a lot of players back, it feels good and it’s very promising for the next coming games and I think we’re getting stronger as a team.”

“A lot of competition within the team to get players in the line-up and I think that’s only a good thing.”