United welcomed defending A-League premiers Perth Glory to Geelong on Saturday afternoon, marking the first home game in the club’s history with a 1-1 draw in front of 6888 fans at Kardinia Park.

Coming into the fixture on the back of a 1-0 win over Wellington Phoenix in round one, it was Greek international Panagiotis Kone that secured the honour of becoming United’s first home goalscorer when he fired home early in the second half.

Though Kristian Popovic would later net his maiden A-League goal to secure a point for the visitors, the nature of the team’s performance was a positive one; young defender-cum-attacker Dylan Pierias almost stole the game late when a dinked effort over the top of Glory keeper Liam Reddy hit the crossbar and bounced back into play.

While the quality of the squad on paper was never in question heading into the season, the first pieces of field testing are certainly showing positive signs, something that McDonald welcomed following the draw.

“We’ve come in as a bit of a surprise package,” the former Socceroo told FTBL.

“Everyone has talked about age and whatnot – the experience of this side – but it’s holding us in good stead at the minute and you’ve seen today that we’ve got some really good youth as well.

“Dylan Pierias came on in an unknown position for him and almost stole the glory.

“First half I think we weren’t at our normal standards of what we like to be, but we dug in and held on… a little bit like what we did in the second half at Wellington.

“That just shows the good resilience that was in the team; a good shape and a lot of hard work that we’ve been doing in pre-season.

“Then second half you see our quality shine through with some of the individual talents we’ve got, the European players. I thought Connor Pain and Josh Risdon were excellent in those wing-back roles as well, the energy they show getting up and down.

“It’s probably an unfamiliar role for me but I’m enjoying it. I’ve been a centre forward the majority of my career, but a lot of people haven’t seen a lot of me the last decade and what I’ve done in terms of playing different roles.

“I’m more than happy to change it up and play deeper and be a team player.

“Again, I’ve got to the age where I love to score goals but if Bes [Besart Berisha] scores more than me I’m happy with that. Before it would probably be a problem, five years ago it would have been an issue, but not now.

“It’s all about this team progressing, this team growing and pushing in the right direction.”

Although the initial signs have been positive for United, the biggest early-season tests for the club are set to arrive in the next two rounds: Melbourne City heading to Geelong in round three and United heading to Marvel Stadium to face Melbourne Victory in round four.

Seeking to establish themselves in Victoria's west with a separate geographical and spiritual identity to that of the existing Melbourne powers, United are also being relied upon at head office to provide the middling A-League with a much-needed shot in the arm.

A veteran of numerous battles in the Auld Firm, McDonald is well-aware of the significance that the coming derbies hold for both United and the league.

“You want to make these big games into big moments and build the rivalries,” he said.

“City is the one we look at now. We’re just going to take it week to week, it’s all we can do as a team.

“But these games are massive and hopefully the fans come out in their droves and make it the second derby of Melbourne. Obviously, City and Victory are well-renowned, but hopefully we can add our names in their now and become an even bigger rival to these two teams.

“These are the games people always look to. [Saturday night] was the F3 Derby and last week was the City/Victory game.

“I think these games are always the exciting ones that the build-up is big for.

“We need to generate that excitement, we need to build that rivalry and hopefully we start on a good foot next week and put one over them.”