Melbourne Victory second-choice goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas has conceded he felt his first game of the season against Newcastle Jets which finished 1-1 last Saturday was more than deserved.
Thomas played the game of his career in last year’s A-League Grand Final success, however, since then has been overlooked by Kevin Muscat to field Danny Vukovic for 2015-16.
Vukovic at times had questionable performances this season, in his 250th game the Victory endured a 5-0 loss to Brisbane Roar.
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The 30-year-old and the Victory redeemed some respect after their 0-0 draw in last week’s ACL clash with Suwon Bluewings, but Muscat felt the change was needed in the domestic competition days later, Thomas said he was up for it.
“It was difficult, after the success from last year, coming and not playing a minute, you get patches of being down and frustrated,” Thomas said.
“I’ve kept my head down, worked hard and I believe things happen for a reason, the chance has come around again and I’m ready.
“I’ve been ready since the final last year. I felt comfortable coming in and hopefully I can continue that.
“I’ve been waiting for this, personally I’m ready to come in and have a big impact on this team.”
Despite the challenge to Vukovic’s mantle, the young goalkeeper said it had no impact on their chemistry.
Thomas also said he wanted to take charge should the opportunity be given to him.
“I want the pressure, I want to come in, it’s part of being at this club with big games every week. In the situation where in now, I’d love to come in and take responsibility to help the team out,” he said.
“It’s a professional environment, I respect and support him the whole way through. Before the game last week, he came to me and said a few words to help me out.
“The mutual respect is there, I think now we’ve increased the intensity in training, he wants his spot back and I want to keep it.
“We’ll both be pushing today and tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.”
The 23-year-old was also bold in his opinions this morning, stating they needed to walk the walk with all the promises Victory were delivering to their fans through the media.
“The squad we’ve got, we proved last year we can go all the way, I see every day in training I try to say it to the boys before the game ‘it’s time now we start doing our talking on the field’,” he said.
“We have the best of everything here, the best set up, the best fans and we need to start producing on the field, it’s as simple as that.
“I’m grateful I have the opportunity to get out there and influence what we do.”
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