Brattan has 180 minutes under his belt in the first two fixtures of the 2016/17 FFA Cup after stirring victories against Floreat Athena and Brisbane Strikers which both finished 2-1 away from home.

And after two competitive matches against NPL sides, Brattan he welcomed the challenge against the 2016 A-League runner-up.

“I think it’s going to be our toughest test this pre-season and we’re taking the cup pretty seriously, so we definitely want to win the game and dominate and play the way we want this season,” Brattan said.

“They got a few new good players and they were decent last season and they’ve always been a good club ever since they’ve come in.

“They’re going to be tough, but we’ll concentrate on ourselves and do the things we’ve been practicing all pre-season.”

Brattan said his side refused to be complacent against local teams on their way to Wednesday night’s encounter.   

“It’s a lot different to playing local teams, I sometimes think people underestimate the local teams, it’s very tough to play against them,” he said.

“They’re at the end of their season, they’re all fit and are always up to play A-League opposition, but we’ve played two teams and we’ve beaten them.

“This will be a good test, it’ll be a completely different test, we want to play in these games and we definitely want it to be a good game.”

Brattan played the whole of his senior career with Brisbane Roar and enjoyed three A-League Championships along the journey, but now finds himself at a club which is yet to win silverware.

The 26-year-old admitted trophies were the ultimate goal, but was adamant the club was living in the present.

And despite not being at the club last season, he said the mentality had shifted after City fell short of both the Premiership and Championship in 2016.

“This year I know we’ve got a different mentality and the coaches are ramming that into us, we want to kill off games and play the way we want to play,” he said.

“That’s started and we’ve done pretty well this pre-season and we’re extremely fit and all the boys are looking very sharp, so the football is coming off really well.”