Melbourne Victory were simply too good as they demolished Wellington Phoenix 6-1 at Docklands Stadium courtesy of strong displays by Besart Berisha and Marco Rojas.
Kosta Barbarouses and Gui Finkler both made their return to Melbourne for the first time against their old club but two successive penalties early in the first-half gifted the match to the Victory.
An early Rashid Mahazi foul three minutes in was a sign that this would be a touchy encounter with six yellows and one red card handed out.
A clumsy Roly Bonevacia challenge in the 18th minute inside the box gave the Victory a chance to open the scoring in the 18th minute with Besart Berisha converting the spot-kick with immense power.
The lack of experience from the Phoenix back four was all the more evident when only a minute after the first foul, Dylan Fox took down the Albanian forward inside the box with the striker converting the penalty to bring his tally with Melbourne up to 50 goals.(more)
