Wanderers on track to end season with fairytale Results in sight ... coach Tony Popovic lays down the law at training on Wednesday. Photo: Dallas Kilponen WESTERN SYDNEY Wanderers coach Tony Popovic might tire of the question about whether his side can be considered contenders but as they keep racking up win after win, it is hard to ignore their claims. Going into Sunday's clash against Adelaide at Hindmarsh Stadium, the Wanderers are just a solitary point behind second-placed Melbourne Victory with nine games to play, and only six points adrift of the top-placed Central Coast Mariners. No team is in better form - the Wanderers have rattled off three straight wins - and with the finals looming large in the final third of the season, critics and fans believe their dream debut season could have the ultimate fairytale ending. Bookmakers have slashed their title odds to just $6, a staggering price for a side that was roughly six times that figure early in the season. However, Popovic's job, for now at least, seems to be keep a lid on the brewing excitement. I don't know about going all the way yet. We do have a lot of games still to play and we've shown in the second third of the season [we can play well] - we only had 10 points after nine games," he said. We turned that around in nine matches and now we're sitting third. We know with nine games to go, it can certainly change again for a lot of sides, including ourselves. The only way we want to change is by getting better. To do that, we have to stay at our best, keep working really hard and concentrate on the small details and hopefully continue. Try telling Croatian striker Dino Kresinger to say he and his teammates are not dreaming of success. "Yeah, that's now in our minds," he said. We want to be good. We want to be the best. We want to win in every game. We are now third, and you always want to be better. You don't want to be fourth, we want to be second, and then keep going up. However, Popovic said his players had developed a new toughness, from a mental perspective, in recent weeks. "I felt Brisbane was a pivotal game for us in terms of coming from behind, which we haven't done before, and considering we were quite poor in the first half," he said. To turn around the performance and the result in the second half was, I think, another sign of the maturity in the squad, and I thought that was a great sign for us. To do what we did [against Melbourne Heart] with 10 men, we certainly don't want that to become a habit, but the players were really positive and really had a lot of belief not to just sit back but to get forward and do everything they can to win the game. Popovic believes his players have finally received some reward for their application and are relishing playing this much. There's a good mood now because when you're winning, confidence is high. There's a lot of belief in the group and they're obviously enjoying their football," he said. We've managed to win three consecutive games again which is a great sign of the improved consistency we have in our results. We've always felt our performances have been good and now the results have been matching that, so we're pleased with how we're progressing. The Wanderers travel to Adelaide knowing they pummelled the Reds 6-1 in their last clash - but that they lost on their only trip to South Australia earlier in the season. Now the question is whether Adelaide will get a bounce from bringing in a new coach, Michael Valkanis, to replace John Kosmina, who resigned on Monday after a fall-out with management. "A new coach can give them something new," Kresinger said. For us, it would have been better if the coach had stayed a little longer. This will be his first game, so maybe they will change. Kresinger has scored only once this season, and while he has played a largely selfless role, the 30-year-old wants to be more prolific. "I like my role, I like to play for the team but I would really like to score more goals ... but the team is playing good, and that's the most important thing," he said.