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Melbourne Victory marquee Marcos Flores is in grave doubt for his side's match against the Central Coast Mariners, with Francesco Stella likely to take his place

By IAIN STRACHAN

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Marcos Flores looks set to miss Melbourne Victory's crunch match against A-League leaders the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday.

Flores has been struggling for form in recent weeks and lined up with Victory's reserves at training on Friday, with January arrival Francesco Stella taking the Argentine's place in the first team's forward line.

Former Adelaide United man Flores limped off the training field at the end of the session, with Victory coach's indicating his misfiring marquee is in doubt for the trip to Gosford.

"Marcos Flores had got a bit of a quad strain so we'll see how he is," Postecoglou said.

Victory were without key forward Archie Thompson and first-choice left-back Adama Traore as they went down 2-1 at home to Western Sydney last Saturday.

Australia international Thompson will be sidelined again on Saturday, but Traore will make an immediate return to the starting XI at Bluetongue Stadium.

Youngster Scott Galloway, who filled in for Traore in the loss to the Wanderers, is expected to switch to his preferred position at right-back, at the expense of Diogo Ferreira.

"Archie will miss, [he's] tracking alright, will hopefully be read for next week," Postecoglou said.

"Adama's been great for us this year, obviously we missed him last week. He slots back in and it doesn't really change the way we play."

Postecoglou also expressed his support for the Victorian state government's tough new sanctions aimed at combating disorder at A-League matches.

Premier Ted Baillieu and Sports Minister Hugh Delahunty have flagged longer bans for offenders, and will seek to impose bigger fines for carrying and lighting of flares.

"The club's been very supportive of those actions and it's quite a simple process for me," Postecoglou said.

"If someone's done something wrong, identify them, prosecute them and we move on.

"The state government's moves will hopefully help that. It's like anything else in society, if you do the wrong thing, hopefully people [will] catch them and get rid of them. Simple."