Melbourne Victory are top of the table after a convincing 3-0 win over the Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium.
The visitors got off to the perfect start with a goal to Gui Finkler in the first minute. Wellington was completely outclassed and its situation got worse when Andrew Durante scored an own goal.
Archie Thompson’s ninth goal of the season rounded out the win, inflicting a second 3-0 loss in two weeks for the Phoenix.
Wellington Phoenix
Glen Moss – 6.5: Bested by three good goals, but the goalkeeper still made some decent saves.
Manny Muscat – 6: Got forward but was not able to keep Victory’s wide men out of the contest.
Michael Boxall – 5: Average performance. Pushed forward into the midfield on occasion.
Andrew Durante – 5: Scored an own goal and looked a bit out of sorts without Ben Sigmund partnering him in the centre.
Louis Fenton – 7: Wellington’s best on ground. Solid in defence and consistently pushed forward and created chances.
Alex Rodriguez – 6: Stepped into Albert Riera’s role but was unable to fulfil the holding midfield position as well as was necessary for the Phoenix to be competitive.
Michael McGlinchey – 5: Pushed back into the midfield but was barely present for majority of the match.
Roly Bonevacia – 6.5: One of the Phoenix’s best. A solid second half which saw him look the most likely to get his side back into the match.
Roy Krishna – 5: Very quiet, never really got into good positions or had the chance to influence the game.
Nathan Burns – 5.5: Quiet in the first half, did well in the second and had a couple of chances.
Joel Griffiths – 5: Very quiet up until his nasty-looking knee injury which forced him off on the half-hour mark.
Substitutes
Kenny Cunningham – 5.5: Replaced Griffiths in the 30th minute, played well in the second half.
Jason Hicks – N/A: came on in the 84th minute but did not have a chance to make a real impact on the game.
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Melbourne Victory
Nathan Coe – 6: Largely untested for the first half and substituted in the 58th minute due to injury.
Leigh Broxham – 5: Did his job defensively, subduing Wellington’s wide men.
Nick Ansell – 6: Solid performance from the centre back.
Matthieu Delpierre – 6: Good shift put in by the Frenchman.
Daniel Georgievski – 6: Great performance in both defence and attack. Made a super clearance off the goal line.
Gui Finkler – 8: Brilliant in the first half. Scored the first goal and was always present in the Victory forward line.
Mark Milligan – 6: Played a big part in stifling Wellington’s transition between defence and attack.
Carl Valeri – 5.5: Did well in the holding midfield position.
Archie Thompson – 7: Played well, scored the third goal right before he was substituted.
Besart Berisha – 7: Crucial in the first two goals but did not have many real chances for himself though.
Fahid Ben Khalfallah – 8: Ever present in the Victory attacks and found space regularly. Really good down the flanks.
Substitutes
Lawrence Thomas – 6: Came on in the 58th minute, only had to make a few saves.
Kosta Barbarouses – 5: Replaced Thompson in the 73rd minute, had a few chances.
Rashid Mahazi – 5: Replaced Milligan. Did not spend a lot of time on the pitch.
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