They were thumped 3-0 by Wellington Phoenix on their home turf, a side they usually do well against at home.

Second-placed Victory are on 45 points and the most likely possibility is they will finish in that position.

With two rounds remaining in the regular season, a depleted Muscat knows the team needs to keep going or they will get found out in the finals.

“You’re in and around people, see the results, everyone is talking about ‘we can’t finish third, we can’t finish second’,” Muscat said. “At the same time you’ve got to take the words of knowledge rather than experience.

“Just because you’ve been in the game 40 years it doesn’t make you knowledgeable, it makes you experienced. But the knowledge in this is you can’t just coast to the finals, get there and expect to perform your best.

“That’s knowledge telling me that, because I’ve been through it. It’s not experience, it’s knowledge, I’ve walked through it. You’ve got to perform at your best to reach the finals.

“You can’t get to the finals coasting, flick a switch and then you perform well. You might do it for 10 minutes, you might do it for a half, if you’re lucky you’ll do it for a game… but it won’t last.”

Muscat maintains the performances of the team overall have been good this season and would not be making any drastic changes after the Wellington shellacking.

He now demands reaction after they were dealt a “reality check” against Western Sydney Wanderers next week who need to claim points to guarantee a finals place.

“Anyone can sit in the corner and look disappointed, we’ve just let 90 minutes pass us by where we could have used those 90 minutes to prepare for finals,” he said.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve come here and been so disappointed with a performance.

“We were comprehensively beaten tonight. Let’s not try to find our way around it with a decision or red card, yellow card. It’s all irrelevant, none of those decisions could have helped us tonight because we were second best.”