Ferreira, 23, has been a mainstay of the backline since round five, coinciding with an unbeaten run by Ange Postecoglou’s men.

All the attention is on Victory’s potent attacking weapons, such as Kiwi international Marco Rojas, but it is in defence where the team has really muscled up.

After conceding 17 goals in the opening rounds, compounded by a 5-0 loss to Queensland Roar in round two, Ferreira says they are “slowly” turning things around.

“At the end of the day we want to be attacking but we don’t want to be leaking goals every single game,” he said.

Victory recorded their first win of the season against Adelaide in round three. Another win over the second-placed Reds will see them go level on points but remain third on goal difference.

“We’ve come better in the last few weeks and keeping two clean sheets in a row is obviously very good for defence,” Ferreira added.

“Hopefully we can do that again – that is definitely the plan. (Adelaide) are a good strong team. They’re structured and it’s obviously paying off for them.

“We know they’ve got good players on form but if we can shut them down, and play the way we want to play, I’m sure we can keep a clean sheet and hopefully get a good result.

“We’re very attacking minded and one thing Ange says a lot is ‘we don’t want to take a backward step for any team’.”

The versatile Ferreira hasn’t missed a minute of game time since replacing Matthew Foschini in the starting XI and being slotted into the unfamiliar right back role.

But he says he’s enjoying the challenge of a new position and growing in confidence every week.

“Obviously I’m a midfielder but it’s definitely a position that I can see myself playing from here on,” he said.

A former FC Porto youth team player, Ferreira returned to Australia in 2009 after dropping off the radar of national team selectors and says he made the right decision.

“I kind of got to the point where I’m – no one back home knows me, I’ve never been called up to any of the Young Socceroos or youth teams or anything like that,” he said.

“I made a decision to take a backward step to hopefully take two forwards and it kind of worked out for me.

“I came back here and just started training in the VPL locally and two months after that I was signed with the youth team at Melbourne Victory.

“After that came the seniors and I got called up for the U23s trying to qualify for London.

“I think it was a great move for me – obviously a lot of hard work and a bit of luck as well and it panned out exactly how I wanted it to.”

Now with his attention firmly fixed on club success, Ferreira is convinced Victory are heading in the right direction to snare the double.

“We want to be on the front foot all the time and even off the field,” he said. “Ange has come in and with the whole football department and coaching staff the culture has changed around the place.

“As a group collectively I think this year everyone is pulling in the same direction, even the players that aren’t playing are training hard because they know they can get an opportunity.

“In the last five games we’ve won four and drawn one so obviously the confidence is high definitely.

“Obviously we’d love to win the Championship, that’s what we go out every day to train hard for. So that would be fantastic.

“The main one is the grand final, so we’d love to win that, but if we can win them both, why not?”