Melbourne Victory has notched up its fifth win of the season, destroying Perth Glory 4-0 at Telstra Dome.
Melbourne Victory has notched up its fifth win of the season, destroying Perth Glory 4-0 at Telstra Dome.
A brace to Danny Allsopp and one each to Grant Brebner and Rody Vargas sealed the win for an under-strength Victory side that remains on top of the Hyundai A-League table.
Melbourne started brightly, and Tom Pondeljak saw an early chance go wide after combining well with Archie Thompson. Melbourne was dominating the possession, but couldn’t crack a Perth defence happy to sit back and absorb the pressure.
But Perth nearly stole one on the counter attack, with only a brilliant save from Mitchell Langerak denying Naum Sekulovski’s close range header.
The Victory had another good chance on 17 minutes, after Jamie Harnwell blocked Evan Berger’s shot with his hand just outside the box. But Billy Celeski’s looping free kick just missed the top corner.
It was Brebner who finally broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, slamming the ball home after Perth defender Jeff Bright failed to clear Archie Thompson’s wayward shot.
Perth wasn’t out of it yet, and nearly found an equaliser in the 35th minute, Wayne Srhoj blazing across the face of goal after a neat header down from Eugene Dadi.
The Victory wasn’t to be denied a second however, with some neat passing from Billy Celeski and Pondeljak releasing Allsopp on goal. Glory keeper Frank Juric blocked Allsopp’s first effort, but could only watch as the big forward buried the rebound.
The only thing that saved Perth from being three down at halftime was Pondeljak, who couldn’t get out of the way of Thompson’s goal-bound shot after Juric spilled an easy save.
But a third did come soon enough, from an unlikely source in Vargas. The defender was on hand to bundle home Berger’s free kick in the 46th minute after Juric was caught in no man’s land.
Allsopp bagged his second to make it 4-0 in the 71st minute, running on to Pondeljak’s through ball and slotting it calmly past Juric.
Substitute Nikita Rukavytsya nearly got a consolation goal for the Glory, but Langerak did well to reach his deflected shot in the 73rd minute.
Pondeljak should have had his own name on the scoreboard minutes later, but blazed his volley wide after a woeful clearance from Jamie Coyne.
Another pleasing sign for Melbourne was the return of Nick Ward for his first game of the season, replacing Pondeljak late in the game.
Melbourne Victory 4 (Brebner 25, Allsopp 40, 71, Vargas 46) Perth Glory 0
Saturday, 4 October 2008
Telstra Dome, Melbourne
Referee: Strebre Delovski
Crowd: 18,036
Victory memberships for the Hyundai A-League 2008/09 season are currently available from the Victory Shop, 236 Swan Street, Richmond, by calling 1300 GO MVFC or online by clicking here.
