Melbourne Victory have heaped the pressure on their nearest championship rivals, beating North Queensland 2-0 at Etihad Stadium on Friday night to tighten their grip on a top two A-League finish.

Two brilliant individual goals from Carlos Hernandez – one in each half – sealed the result and ended the Fury’s slim finals hopes.

The win puts the Victory three points clear of second-placed Gold Coast and five points ahead of Sydney FC.

And it increases Gold Coast and Sydney’s urgency to take points in their matches on Sunday to stay in contention for a top two berth and a place in the major semi-final, with just one round remaining after this weekend.

But the Victory’s win came at a high cost, with defender Matthew Kemp suffering what appeared a serious knee injury set to rule him out of the club’s A-League finals campaign.

The Socceroo defender was injured inside the first minute of the match, when his knee wobbled awkwardly in a tackle.

He left the field for treatment then attempted to play on before collapsing in agony minutes later clutching his knee and adding further to the list of sidelined Victory players.

The defending champions are already without star striker Archie Thompson for a month with a broken bone in his foot, while skipper Kevin Muscat is missing for another week through suspension.

But Hernandez stood up in their absence, getting things rolling with a wonderful opening goal in the 35th minute.

The Costa Rican received the ball with his back to goal, turned Fury defender Jimmy Downey and ran towards the near post, then squeezed the ball between the post and goalkeeper Justin Pasfield for a super individual goal.

Then he unleashed one of his trademark long-range free-kicks to put the match beyond doubt in the 66th minute.

The Fury had their chances – coming closest when Robbie Middleby’s low shot just before halftime forced Victory keeper Mitch Langerak to dive and tip his shot on to the post.

New Victory signing Nik Mrdja, who was secured from Central Coast Mariners just 24 hours earlier in a controversial quasi-loan deal ahead of the finals, came on at halftime.

While he provided some good physical presence up front, he missed a sitter in injury time when one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

© AAP 2012

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