Football
AAP 7y

Kevin Muscat relieved to have Besart Berisha back against Wellington

Kevin Muscat is relieved to have Besart Berisha in his arsenal for Melbourne Victory's season-defining A-League week, saying it was simply common sense to rescind the sharpshooter's controversial red card.

A day after the match review panel ruled Berisha's 58th-minute dismissal in Friday night's 3-2 win over the Brisbane Roar was an "obvious error", Muscat declared playing with 10 men for half an hour was punishment enough for the Albanian's minor brush with Luke DeVere.

The decision is a major boost to Victory's attempt to raid league leaders Sydney FC and means the goals ace is free to play Tuesday night's rescheduled clash against the Wellington Phoenix, before travelling to Perth four days later.

A seventh win on the trot would close the gap to two points.

Muscat accepted the linesman had made a mistake in advising referee Chris Beath to send Berisha off after DeVere reacted to minimal contact, but said it was important to stamp out such glaring errors.

"It is common sense because the fact we played 30 minutes with 10 men I thought was punishment enough," Muscat said.

"Fortunately this time it didn't affect the result, so I'm not going to dwell on it too much.

"Everybody makes mistakes, but what's important is there's the system in place, they've gone back and had a look at it and rescinded the suspension.

"So we move on. It's great we've got a full quota for the next week or two."

It's unclear whether Berisha will start and how Muscat will manage his squad on the gruelling road trip given crucial games loom against Sydney and Melbourne City in the following weeks.

The coach wouldn't confirm whether he'd retain his starting XI against the seventh-placed Phoenix, who sit two points outside the top six and will have Roy Krishna back from suspension.

"We've got no issues with any of the guys who played the other night but we'll give ourselves another 24 hours to assess," Muscat said.

"We've near enough come across with the same 16.

"There's just a good vibe about the place and when you're winning it's unbelievable - no one seems to feel tired.

"But at the same time we won't take any risks with anybody."

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