Adrian Leijer aims to reward Mark Milligan after missing out on Crystal Palace deal Mark Milligan was on the verge of joining English Premier League side Crystal Palace this week but the deal collapsed. CAPTAIN Adrian Leijer hopes his Melbourne Victory team will reward Mark Milligan by winning this season's A-League title. Milligan, who will be in action for the Socceroos tomorrow against Brazil, was on the verge of joining English Premier League side Crystal Palace this week but the deal collapsed. Having had two years at Premier League club Fulham, Leijer feels for his close pal. He spent plenty of time with a frustrated young Milligan in London from 2008-10 when Arsenal and Porto were among the clubs rumoured to be interested in him. But nothing came to fruition, which perhaps explains why Milligan, now 28, was so keen on Palace, which was believed to have submitted a $1.4 million bid. "When you've got that opportunity in front of you, I suppose every footballer dreams of experiencing that," Leijer said. But on the other side of the fence it's a World Cup year, he goes to Palace and realistically they're going to be hoping for survival more than anything; by him staying here he'll be pushing for a championship. So for us as players it's fantastic that he's on board and hopefully we can reward him and get a championship. For our club it's huge he's stayed. While within himself he may be a bit disappointed he didn't get the chance to play in the English Premier League, he came back because he wanted to be settled and he's found a good club, found a good coach and he's continuing to play very good football here. Leijer said Victory was more advanced than a year ago, coach Ange Postecoglou's first pre-season. Pre-season is going well. Ange is pushing us as he always does, but, like I said, the things we're working on now compared to the start of last year's pre-season, we've advanced massively and we're in a much better position," he said. VICTORY plays Victorian Premier League side Hume City tomorrow in a friendly at John Ilhan Memorial Reserve, Broadmeadows. The game kicks off at 2pm.