Macallister, who sealed the three points with his first-half goal, was among those Heart players who stayed out on the field celebrating with fans long after the final whistle.

He compared the win to a grand final and ramped up the enmity between the teams saying Heart had out-thought and out-played their opponents in the blockbuster season opener in front of 42,000 people.

But he said the euphoria of going 3-1 up over Victory in the derby stakes would count for little if they couldn’t grab the win at home against his former club Wellington Phoenix at AAMI Park on Sunday.

The Kiwi outfit will be without a host of first team players thanks to World Cup duty, but after a strong win in their round one clash against Sydney FC, they could prove a handful for the home side if Heart don’t bring their A game.

“Of course it’s always nice to win the derby,” Macallister said. “It exceeded all expectations – it felt like a grand final for us.

“We really came out there and did the job. Yeah, they’ve got a lot more members than us, and they’ve been round a few more years, and they’ve brought in a new coach who’s won the championship the last two years, and they have the so-called big name players.

“But Victory haven’t beaten Heart in nearly two years now. So the Red and White has definitely got it over them.

"Heart finished higher than Victory on the table last year and I think that just shows we have the strongest team at the moment and we showed that on Friday.

“But we want to be at the right end of the table come the end of the season and so now we’re just looking forward to the next game.

“The fact that Phoenix are going to have some players missing because of the qualifiers could be seen as a positive for us but if we treat this match any differently then it could be a danger game.

“We definitely have to make sure we come down off the high of last week. We’ve really been building towards that first game but now we have to make sure we concentrate on doing the right things at training this week.

“We need to make sure we come out with all guns blazing. Three points is the only result.”

Macallister, 30, praised the contribution of Heart’s other goalscoring hero David Williams, saying he expected the winger to make a decisive contribution to the side’s success this season.

“I’ve known Willo for quite a while – he was playing in Denmark when I was playing in Norway and we were both in pre-season camps in Spain,” he said.

“The great thing about Melbourne Heart this year is that we have really quick skilful wingers who are going to cross a lot of balls and score a lot of goals themselves.

“He showed that on Friday getting into some really good positions and by the end of it he could have scored three.

“And it’s all credit to him, he’s worked harder than ever this pre-season and got himself into really good shape and I think his rewards are going to come.”

Sydney-born Macallister, whose 2011-12 stint with now defunct Gold Coast United ended on the treatment table, spent the off-season playing for Rockdale City Suns before signing a two-year deal with Heart, his fourth A-League club.

He said John Aloisi’s masterminding of the derby win was a sign of things to come and that the players had faith in the rookie senior coach’s ability to lead the club to a championship win just its third year.

“We want to win – we want to be champions this year,” he said. “The team made the finals last year and they thought they under-performed a little bit.

"We’ve recruited well and I don’t see any reason why we can’t win.”