Incheon's Harrison Delbridge: "We should be in the top six with the squad we've got"

Incheon United defender Harrison Delbridge insists that the visit of Gwangju FC this Friday is not about revenge. Instead, it's about three points that could take Incheon back into the top six where Delbridge believes is where the team belongs.

Incheon United have the AFC Champions League playoff against Vietnamese top-flight side Hai Phong to look forward to next week but not before top-six rivals Gwangju FC visit Sungui Arena Park on Friday - a huge match and one between two in-form teams.

Incheon in seventh are only two points behind fifth-placed Gwangju meaning a win would move them into the top six. Friday's fixture is the third this season and Incheon fans won't need to be reminded about the first - a 5-0 rout in Gwangju back in March.

Incheon centre back Harrison Delbridge says he's looking forward to the match:

"It'll be really good. I'm glad it's at home, it'll be great to play in front of our supporters but Gwangju, I actually think they play some really good football as well. We obviously had a big loss to them earlier in the season (Round 4, 5-0) and drew with them again. I think we've got momentum on our side, I know that they've also had some good results as well but us at home, I back us in the mood we're in right now, in the momentum we've got. I back us but it'll be a really good game and it's an important one for us, getting ourselves back into that top six where we really should be with the squad that we've got, it's a huge game. Got to win that one."

[READ: 2023 Hana 1Q K League 1 Round 27 Preview]

Is revenge on the mind, or is the Australian treating the match like any other?

"I think it was one of those games where the wheels just sort of came off completely and there was no saving it at the time and then we played them and drew. There's a little bit of [revenge], I guess but for me, it's just we need these points and I don't care who it is that we're playing. [Revenge) can be a little bit of extra motivation for sure for some people. For me, it's just the points on the table. "

Incheon welcome Gwangju on the back of a 3-1 win over Daegu FC to make it six wins in eight matches. Things, then, are starting to click after a slightly slow start to the campaign. Delbridge attributes this to the number of new faces that came through the door.

"I think everyone at the club, supporters as well, could recognise that when you've got this many players that you've brought in, people expected results straight away and they weren't coming and our performances weren't great. It's hard to put my finger on one thing. I think we had a bit of a core group that came back (for pre-season), there were some big pieces that came in and had to fit together straight away. We had a good pre-season and I thought I saw that it had started to come together but the K League's crazy. When you don't get a few results in a row, it's like the games are just coming thick and fast and you have to work it out on the run and I think there were times where, instead of building on the way that we wanted to play, we were trying to just scrap out results and they weren't coming and the expectation's building and you could see that in players a little bit, the frustration and stuff like that.

"We definitely got bogged down a little bit and even through the middle (of the season), we weren't losing a lot of games but we weren't getting results that I feel that we should've been getting. It's hard to put my finger on one thing but there were just so many players that came in that were going to play a big role that was taking some time to gel and the only way to do that is in games because you can't replicate it in training. But I do think we're headed in the right direction and the good thing for us is that there's still a lot of room for us to put even better performances together and start to control games more rather than just scrapping out results."