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Runaway A-League leaders Sydney FC want to wrap up the Premiers Plate as quickly as possible in the uncertain environment caused by the coronavirus.
The carrot of winning a Premiers Plate as quickly as possible before any potential shutdown of the A-League, will motivate runaway A-League leaders Sydney heading into a possible fixture logjam.
The Sky Blues hold a 10-point lead over second placed Melbourne City with two games in hand and need only eight more points to secure a record fourth plate and their third in the last four seasons.
Third-placed Wellington, the only other team with any slight hope of catching the Sky Blues are another point back and played a game more.
Wellington's away match against Sydney on Wednesday was postponed as the squad serve a two-week isolation period after arriving in Australia.
With the coronavirus situation, the FFA have already signalled their intention of compressing the remaining games of the season into a few weeks and Sydney are expected to back up again sometime in the middle of next week
Sydney have seven games to play, more than any other team.,
Two wins over the next week would go a long way towards securing the Plate, especially if Melbourne City drop any points in away games at the Central Coast and Newcastle, and with Wellington inactive over that time.
Sydney defender Ryan McGowan stressed they had plenty of incentive going into Saturday's derby against the Wanderers at Bankwest Stadium.
"We have that carrot dangling of a couple of wins and the whole season has been a huge success in winning the Premiers Plate," McGowan told AAP..
"We're going to be coming into a very difficult period in terms of the number of games in the amount of weeks, but that's probably why it's been good that we have the points on the board
"We've got ourselves a little gap and we want to be trying to win the games as quickly as possible, because with fatigue, or with however they are going to put these fixtures, it could become quite difficult towards the end of the season."
Sydney's only A-League defeats this season have been in derby matches against the Wanderers, whose side includes his younger brother and fellow central defender Dylan McGowan.
"He's very quick to mention those defeats and a couple of their boys that I'm quite close with have been quite quick to remind myself they have beaten us twice this season," McGowan said.
"So from a personal point of view I want to set that straight."
