Melbourne-born Ferrante was part of Victory's championship-winning squad in season two of the A-League but made only five appearances (four as a substitute).

He moved on to become part of Wellington's inaugural A-League squad and is very happy with life in New Zealand.

Ferrante and his teammates face Melbourne at Westpac Stadium this weekend just a couple of weeks after the teams contested the Pre-Season Cup final at the same venue.

Melbourne emerged victors after a penalty shoot-out but Ferrante says it's not really about revenge on Sunday.

He told au.fourfourtwo.com: "We were disappointed to lose the cup final in that way as we felt we'd deserved to win. But these things happen and we took a lot of positives from our pre-season performances.

"But now it's about getting points in the bag and we'll certainly be looking to take the game to Melbourne this weekend.

"We want to make this place (Westpac Stadium) a real fortress this season, which wasn't the case last time.

"We need to build on the point we picked up against Queensland Roar last week and we're looking forward to the challenge.

"Michael Theoklitos is missing for them and that's a boost but I'm sure young Mitch (Langerak) will be looking to do well after getting his chance."

Ferrante himself is looking for a good performance but is adamant it isn't about proving anyone wrong.

He said: "It's not about making a point to Ernie Merrick. It's not about proving him wrong, it's about proving to Ricki Herbert that he's right (to play me).

"If I have a great game against Ernie Merrick and then four poor games it won't be Ernie Merrick who drops me."

Ferrante said the Phoenix players were going into the game with confidence but were well aware that their opponents had players capable of hurting them.

He said: "I think Carlos Hernandez is a very good player and you know someone like Danny Allsopp is always capable of popping up with a goal. But hopefully they are the ones who are looking at the threats we have in our team."