They say past behaviour is a good predictor of future behaviour. Phoenix fans will certainly be clinging to the hope this mantra provides as their side hangs on in the race for an A-League playoff place.
Last Christmas Phoenix were eighth, but a New Year's Eve win over the Mariners was the first of eight victories in ten matches which saw them into fourth spot and a wonderful post-season run.
A similarly consistent run-in will be required this time around if Phoenix are to again feature beyond the regular season.
Barring an absolutely catastrophic implosion from one of them, the top four now will be the top four come mid-February. It's fifth or sixth spot Phoenix are battling for, and doing so along with the two Melbourne franchises and Newcastle.
You get the feeling Victory will be there because, well...they're Victory. Heart, on the other hand, have just seven games left, few of which they'd enter as favourites.
So it might well become a straight shoot-out for sixth between Newcastle and Phoenix.
So are the Phoenix of 2010/11 capable of the run last season's side embarked upon?
Let's crunch the numbers.
Coach Ricki Herbert has theorised that five wins in their last eight matches should be enough to see them safely into the top six.
Away games against the current top three (Brisbane, Adelaide and Central Coast) will certainly be extremely difficult to navigate, making every other match a virtual must-win. Four of those games are at home and the other is away to the surprisingly woeful defending champion Sydney FC.
The Jets have the easier run-in on the face of things. Of their ten remaining games, five are against the bottom three.
But as the A-League continues to show us, anyone can beat anyone (with the possible exception of Brisbane). The Jets could string together another run of wins, or they could pick up just a handful of points in their next bracket of matches.
Depending what happens in January, the clash between Phoenix and Newcastle in Wellington at the end of the month looms as potentially season-defining.
Before that though, Phoenix have four matches to negotiate and profit from.
As they prepare for the most important month of their season, they can take confidence from what they've achieved before.
