Honours are even so far this season with Vitezslav Lavicka's men winning the round one battle in Townsville before Fury really ignited their season with Robbie Fowler's spectacular winner at the SFS.

Middleby and his teammates head south full of confidence after last week's win over Adelaide United while Sydney slumped to a home defeat against Newcastle Jets.

However, the former Sydney man has been told that the Moore Park boys will come out fighting and determined to put things right.

"From what I've been told, they (Sydney) have had a big week at training and the boys are telling me they're 100 per cent up for a big one this weekend," Middleby told au.fourfourtwo.com today.

"Their pride has been dented and they want to put on a performance and produce a result in front of their own fans. It's always a challenging time to face a team in those circumstances."

Sydney coach Lavicka hinted this morning that marquee striker John Aloisi, a target for the boo boys recently, could be brought into the starting line up. That has left Middleby firmly on his guard.

"John Aloisi is a quality player and quality players have the ability to hurt you. He had a brilliant afternoon when we played Sydney in the first game and tucked away a couple of goals," he said.

However, Fury's marquee man has been in top form and Middleby hopes history can repeat itself this weekend.

"Robbie (Fowler) has been an absolute shining light for us this season - on and off the pitch," said Middleby. "He is a tremendous ambassador for this club but also the A-League as well.

"He has scored important goals, just unbelievable. We haven't forgotten the winner he scored against Sydney at the SFS earlier in the season and it would be great if he could do it again."

Regardless of this weekend's result, Middleby is backing Sydney to come through their slump and be firmly in the mix for honours.

"Definitely, they'll be there," he added. "They have some quality players and as I said, they will be hurting."