The Mariners have lost four games in a row and their task will not get easier against a hungry Melbourne City who sit fourth on the A-League table.

And while Okon was deflated after the drubbing to the Victory, he maintained his positivity on giving his young players an opportunity.

“We won’t use inexperience as an excuse, if you give the ball away under no pressure, I don’t think that’s a question of experience, it’s just a question of not understanding the importance of not giving the ball away and we were guilty of that the other night,” Okon said.

“The young guys are learning and we can look at the positive of that, the quicker we can get them 30 or 40 A-League games, we know we’re going a have better and more experienced footballers.

“Along the way there may be moments where that inexperience does affect the result and performance, the club has a philosophy of giving young players an opportunity.”

Okon was confident the New Year’s Eve clash and drew from his own experiences as a former player anticipating the fixture would have his players fired up.

The Tim Cahill factor would also have an affect according to the former Socceroo captain.

“Their wellness they have to fill in every day tells me they’re ready to go, looking forward to the game, that’s normal,” he said.

“Certainly after a loss and a game that’s only three days later, being a home game against Melbourne City, Tim Cahill coming to town, New Year’s Eve and everyone wants to play in that game.

“He’s (Cahill) nearly at the end of his career but he still manages to decide games, pop up and score important goals for his team.

“He’s a threat and he’s playing in a bit of a different role for Melbourne City, but you know when Tim’s in the box, you can’t give him an inch and anything that comes in, you can bet your house he’ll have his head on the end of it.”

The Mariners boss also felt both Melbourne clubs had similar structure in their offence with Bruce Kamau, Nicolas Colazo and Cahill himself.

“We saw how quickly Victory transition with (Fahid) Ben Khalfallah, (James) Troisi and (Marco) Rojas,” Okon said.

“Melbourne City have the same threat going forward and I thought at times we dealt OK with it against Melbourne Victory and other times we didn’t, so we need to improve.”