Reds road trip to challenge Victory Watching brief: Kevin Muscat (second left) and Ange Postecoglou at Victory training. Overshadowed in all the "Ange for Australia" talk is the fact that Melbourne Victory, having got its season off to a scratchy start in the goalless draw against Heart last Saturday, has one of the toughest assignments on the calendar on Friday night - Adelaide United at Hindmarsh. It's a game that is always fiery and a difficult road trip at the best of times, never mind in a week that has been mired in speculation about Postecoglou's future. The coach admitted after the Heart game that it had been a less than ideal beginning, and his side not only had to improve on its effort at Etihad Stadium but on its performances in Adelaide last season, where it lost twice. "Adelaide were good last week [when they beat Perth Glory 3-1] and they are always difficult at home," Postecoglou said. Adelaide v Melbourne Victory games are always crackers and we didn't do well against them last year - we got beaten up in one of the games there and badly outplayed in the other, so it will be a good test for us. Victory will be strengthened by the return of Mark Milligan, who controversially flew to Europe as part of the Socceroos squad for the matches with France and Canada, but was flown straight back when it became clear his knee injury would not allow him to play. Postecoglou was not happy that he was even called up in the first place, but is delighted to have his captain back. "Milligan has trained fully this week although he was a bit tentative earlier in the week," he said on Thursday. I am pleased we got him back earlier. He's had 48 hours of really good rehab, some light training and he's done the last two sessions fully. He will start [against Adelaide]. Also coming into the team will be young centre-half Nick Ansell, replacing former Chilean international centre-back Pablo Contreras, who has been suspended for two games by the match review panel for an off-the-ball incident with Mate Dugandzic in the Melbourne derby. Postecoglou said it was a harsh punishment for an offence that might have only drawn a yellow card had the referee seen it on the night. "I guess as coaches we look for consistency, and I hope there is inconsistency in this one, as I wouldn't want to see other players missing for that," he said. I think even if the referee had seen it he probably would have given him a yellow card. The fact that he's missing two games is really disappointing. It was clumsy at best. He's learnt a lesson now - he's tried to block a run and gone about it clumsily. It's a loss in terms of getting continuity, [but] it's great that Nick Ansell can step in - we have got massive raps on him. ■ With Postecoglou expected to get the nod as Socceroos boss next week, the rumour mill will go into overdrive about his likely successor at the Victory, with a number of foreign names already being bandied about. But Victory will also look closely at assistant Kevin Muscat, who has served a three-year apprenticeship as No. Postecoglou said Muscat's input in the 18 months he has been in charge had been considerable. "Kevin would be among a number of many young coaches around the country who will eventually get an opportunity to coach," he said. We saw with Tony Popovic last year, he got an opportunity [at Western Sydney Wanderers] and took it. Kevin has been a very important part of what we have done here and anyone who knows the way I work knows I put a lot of responsibility on those around me, and the progress we have made in the past 18 months, he has been part of.