AAMI Park is booked for concerts by Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift on the weekends of December 5/6 and 10/12, meaning both City and Victory have to hit the road before the derby.

Victory has a demanding three away matches in 17 days, when it travels to Wellington next weekend before facing Western Sydney Wanderers in Parramatta. It then has a trip to Perth to take on the Glory in a midweek fixture just three days before the derby.

City, who thumped Perth Glory 5-1 last Friday night,  must travel for a Thursday night game against Central Coast this week, and then returns to the same area for a December 13 away game with the Newcastle Jets.

With both teams sharing AAMI these situations occasionally occur as the ground also doubles as a concert venue. But it is a massive disappointment for local soccer fans, who will now only be able to watch their teams on television until the weekend before Christmas.

Victory boss Kevin Muscat is not making too big a deal of the itinerary after his side  went to the top of the A-League table with its 2-1 win over Adelaide on Saturday night.

However he is making an issue of his team's failure in recent games to comprehensively see off opponents long before the game is finished.

To listen to Muscat following his team's win over Adelaide anyone might have been forgiven for thinking the navy blues had somehow squandered a two goal lead and had to settle for a point – or something worse.

Muscat's men had seen off the out of form Reds with, for the most part, a minimum of fuss after taking a two-goal lead in the first half hour through a Besart Berisha penalty and a tremendous Oliver Bozanic free kick.

But the demanding Victory boss was not happy with his team's  second half performance, when they failed to convert some clear chances to stretch the advantage and then let Adelaide in with a brief sniff of something better when they conceded a penalty – converted by Marcelo Carrusca – three minutes from time.

Victory kept the late charge by the visitors – who had offered little but toil and effort for long periods of this game – at bay. When the final whistle blew it meant Victory had gone to the top of the table on the back of a six-game unbeaten run in all competitions, including four straight wins in the A-League.

It is a measure of the demands that the club places on itself that there was little rejoicing post-match. Muscat made the dressing room sound like a deflated place when he explained post-match that he and the team were disappointed with themselves that they didn't put to bed the game much earlier and had let their opponents back into the game, however marginally, right at the end.

It was the second game in succession that Victory had been cruising to the whistle with a two-goal lead only to allow their opponents a glimmer of hope by conceding a late goal. They did the same against Central Coast Mariners nine days earlier, but they were then also able to close the match out.

It is not a trend, Muscat insists, but something that his team must be wary of.

Victory has begun recent games with purpose and precision and when they are in that sort of mood they "terrify teams", according to their coach.

"When everything's even, when everything's equal, we're very good. We're dangerous and we terrify teams," Muscat said.

"Then when a team's got nothing to lose – when they're 2-0 down – they throw caution to the wind and we've just got to be smarter.

"If we are better in how we take care of the opposition, we'll have a much easier night physically than we end up doing."

"I'm not saying we were bad, by any stretch of the imagination (but) the group knows they're better than that, we know we're better than that, so that's why I'll keep pushing. Playing football at a good level is not easy."

Muscat made sure he took no chances given the daunting schedule his club faces and opted to leave skipper Carl Valeri on the bench for the Adelaide game despite the fact that the two clubs are traditionally fierce rivals.

He gave Rashid Mahazi – who had filled in for Valeri with aplomb against the Mariners – another start as a reward for a good performance, and to reinforce his message that no one gets selected on name and reputation alone.

Muscat also withdrew key defender Matthieu Delpierre from the fray at half-time to ensure the veteran Frenchman would be in the best shape for the trips ahead.