City enters Friday night’s contest with Western United coming off consecutive defeats in arguably their two biggest games of the A-League season - downed 2-1 by Melbourne Victory in the Christmas Derby a fortnight and losing by the same scoreline to Sydney in a top of the table clash last week.

Not only do those results mean that a nine-point gap has now been opened between themselves and Sydney atop the table but it has also City them to a resurgent, third-placed Perth Glory.

“We created a lot of chances, 20 shots on goal,” Mombaerts reflected on the Sydney loss. “The performance was good enough, but we need to be more effective.

“This game against Sydney, maybe we were close to winning but we made a big mistake at the end so we lost.

“We created a lot of chances, 20 shots, but also they played with ten.

“Our start was very good – our first 20 minutes was very good. I expect from the team that we will do the same against Western United.”

Despite the disappointment of the back-to-back defeats, Josh Brilliante, citing the amount of football still to be played and the imminent start of the ACL, on Tuesday insisted that the race for the Premier’s Plate was still on.

He also dismissed any concerns surrounding an ongoing culture of failing to rise to the biggest occasions at the club.

Having previously ground out a gritty, 3-2 over United despite losing Harrison Delbridge to a red card, there could perhaps be no better opponent for City to begin to test their midfielder’s hypothesis on mental fortitude against than the A-League newcomers.

And Mombaerts, for his part, knows it’s a huge game.

“It’s a big game,” he said on Thursday. “It will be a tough game because all the A-League is like that. But, for us, it’s more to focus on what we want to do.

“I expect this of my team, we have to do better and more about our style, and also to show in a home game, that we want to win.

“Yes, we respect Western United a lot, they’re a good team with a lot of experienced players but it’s more interesting for us to concentrate on what we want to set up on the field.

“Also, for our fans… we failed against Victory. We failed against Victory on this. It’s important to show to our fans a better attitude to win, play more intensely and expect that we are able to do this.

 “We know that to be competitive it’s not enough to play good football. It’s important to have a good attitude, an intense attitude. The mentality is so important.

"That is maybe the difference at the moment between Sydney FC and the others. They show they are strong, strong mentally – not just strong in the play.

“We need to follow this way and to improve our players to do the same, that is maybe the most important. The style should be different [to Sydney] but the attitude has to be more aggressive, more competitive and more constant.

“We know that at the moment we have some time, sometimes a good team and sometimes a normal team. It’s not enough. Be constant. Players have to understand this and work on this and develop also their mental strength.

“We know that it's about the collective but also individuals also. They have to work on this.”

“It’s one part of my job to enforce confidence, to do more at training about aggressiveness but also it’s competitive games. They have to do more in competitive games. They have to be strong because our style is difficult to set up.

“They have to understand this. The demands are maybe higher. Why? Because now and in the future, we don’t want to change, we don’t want to change, so they have to adapt and to adjust their quality on this.”

Though they have lost Connor Metcalfe, Denis Genreau, Ramy Najjarine and Tom Glover to Olyroos duty, City is likely to welcome back captain Scott Jamieson – who missed the Sydney game with illness for the clash with Western United, while Rostyn Griffiths will undergo a fitness test.

A bevy of youngsters have been promoted in the wake of the absences - Moudi Najjar, Stefan Colakovski, Raphael Borges Rodrigues, Yaya Dukuly Joe Gauci and Idrus Abdulahi all elevated from the academy.