If statistics are any guide, Adelaide United might as well not bother turning up for Friday night's clash with Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium.
The Reds have not won at that ground - the scene of their greatest humiliation, a 6-0 grand final loss in 2007 - for a decade.
In fact their record against Victory, their traditional interstate rivals, is woeful wherever the matches take place: Victory have only lost once to the Reds in their last 14 meetings (seven wins and five draws for Kevin Muscat's side) and have taken 10 points from a possible 12 in their last four meetings.
Still, history doesn't make any difference when the whistle blows - as Muscat is quick to point out as he looks for his team to rebuild on its stirring 3-2 win in Wellington last weekend.
Surprisingly last season's defeated grand finalists are still looking for their first home win of the new campaign, and Muscat is not allowing the past to cloud his judgment when he comes up against Marco Kurz's Adelaide, with whom they drew 2-2 at the Adelaide Oval earlier this season.
"What gives you an opportunity to be successful tomorrow night is the performance," the coach said on Thursday morning.
"I thought off the back of last week we had a very good performance in Wellington where we created an abundance of chances and opportunities, which is what we are about and how we want to be seen by other teams.
"This week has been a refocus to make sure we reproduce that type of performance. If we do we give ourselves a great chance."
That win in New Zealand showed Muscat that his team had the self belief and talent needed to rescue themselves from an uncharacteristically poor start to the season.
"At half time we were in a bit of a predicament. If we focused on the scoreline it would have been easy to be distracted
"The challenges we laid down to the group and the question we asked the group [was] to maintain that belief.
"We focused on things other than the score. We could have been two or three up before they scored, then they scored a very good goal, the second one. So to maintain that belief and push on, the second half was exceptional [for Victory].
"The easiest thing to do at that point in time was to accept their fate at half-time. They didn't.
"The care factor was obvious to everyone. Coupled together with the mental side, their attitude and their ability was devastating. We could have got quite a few more goals."
After three games on the road, Muscat and his men are happy to return to home territory for a run of games that will keep them in Victoria for several weeks.
"It's nice to get back to familiarity but again, that's only an advantage if you're willing to work hard and prepare well and perform well."
Mark Milligan returns from suspension for this game, while Stefan Nigro will likely get a second start at left back.
Muscat laughed when asked if Tim Cahill, who quit Melbourne City on Wednesday, would end up in Asia to try to ensure his fitness for the World Cup.
"Are you suggesting he's not going to go to another A-League team? If that is the case, so be it.
"His first season, that wow factor of Timmy coming back certainly helped promote the competition. It served its purpose from that perspective
"It's obviously a personal situation that I'm very far from. With Timmy representing the national team, whatever he decides to do, I wish him well."
Are Victory interested? Another smile, then: "We couldn't afford him.
"I'm pretty sure knowing Timmy that he'll have something lined up.
"Whatever he decides, we wish him well and hopefully he gets what he desires to make sure he's available for that World Cup for the nation."
