TWO years ago, the story went a little like this…

Melbourne Victory finished top of the league ahead of second placed Adelaide United. In contrast to 2009, we had tied up the Premiership by a whopping 12 points but our form heading into the finals had been ordinary.

The first leg of the major semi-final was played at Hindmarsh Stadium. In an effort to come away with a draw, Melbourne travelled to Adelaide with a defensive mindset.

Both Muscat and Brebner played in deep midfield roles. Caceres warmed the bench for the whole game. Thompson and Allsopp huffed and puffed with scant service all night.

We survived wave after wave of Adelaide attack.

Diego probably had the Red's best chance early, lifting a shot over the cross bar from a Travis Dodd cross. Ross Aloisi tried his luck from range and Fernando struck the crossbar with a looping header.

It was one of those nights where nothing was ever going to go in for Adelaide.

In the end, Theo would keep a clean sheet - ably assisted by the rock solid Vargas and Leijer - and the Victory would hang on for the result they wanted. The return leg was sure to be an epic encounter... (flashback to be continued next week).

Fast forward to 2009, some of the personnel have changed and so too Victory's lead up form (winning five of our last six games).

Ernie's game plan is different too. He obviously wants to go for it, contrasting Victory's approach last time by saying:

"Then - away from home - we wanted to make sure that we didn't concede and hopefully beat them at home. I think we have got an entirely different set-up now given our ability to get forward at pace...This team plays more of the sort of style of football I like."

Victory are full of confidence and do have a lot of attacking options - with Allsopp and Thompson firing, as well as Hernandez, Ward and Fabiano always looking to get forward. There's no doubt we have the personnel to give it a crack.

Our defence has been shaky for lengthy periods this campaign but we've definitely improved since Thwaite was consigned to the bench. Young Ryall has really stepped up and been in inspired form.

Still, I'm a little sceptical about Ernie's strategy and a lot of that has to do with our very average record away from home (losing four of our last five games).

Surely a more prudent tactic would be to employ the classic home and away approach, similar to last time round?

You know, first away leg typified by staunch defending and attacking on the counter so as to secure a draw (or maybe even nick a 1-0 win). Leaving the home fixture with the task of getting the winning result...

But hey, this is why they pay Ernie the big bucks so I'm prepared to back him up on this one. If Victory manage to pull off a win playing fluid attacking football, I'll sure be one happy fan.

Tristram is a Victory fan and wishes he could say that a knee injury curtailed his promising football career.