Besart Berisha leapt to the top of the A-League scoring charts, netting a hat-trick as Melbourne Victory downed Western Sydney 3-0 for the second time this season.
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Berisha offered the wasteful Wanderers a masterclass in clinical finishing on Saturday night at ANZ Stadium to take his tally to eight and leapfrog previous leaders Andy Keogh and Bruno Fornaroli.
The result takes Victory within a point of second-placed Melbourne City with a game in hand while the Wanderers are left in sixth.
But a well-balanced, absorbing display of football will also be remembered more for Jai Ingham’s nasty knee to the face of Wanderers defender Jonathan Aspropotamitis in the second half.
The Wanderers cried for a red card but referee Chris Beath produced a yellow, with replays suggesting Aspropotamitis was stopping Ingham from getting away.
On the whole, Victory were compact and encouraged the Wanderers to attack.
They duly obliged, probing their visitors time and again with forays of brilliant build-up play, always with Mitch Nichols and the diminutive Nicolas Martinez at the centre.
Yet Tony Popovic’s men squandered chance after chance, and the biggest offender was Brendon Santalab.
The usually prolific scorer missed four solid opportunities in the first half including a goal-mouth header straight into the arms of Victory keeper Lawrence Thomas, and another close-range effort skied well over the bar.
In the end, Victory made theirs count – and preyed on a mistake from error-prone Wanderers gloveman Andrew Redmayne.
Redmayne, recalled only to replace suspended Jerrad Tyson, made some fine saves including a brave run off his line to deny Berisha, but his good work was undone when German import Maximilian Beister used his first A-League start to swing in a speculative shot from 30 metres out.
Redmayne was on alert but parried straight into the path of a circling Berisha, who had only to tap home for his first.
After the break, a pinpoint cross from substitute Ingham put Berisha’s second on a plate as the Albanian put a first-time header home despite being flanked by two ineffective defenders.
He struck a third for good measure in the 92nd minute, closing in one on one with Redmayne and curling home with ease.
j binnie
Guest
Caltex - 16,231 to be exact ,actually the biggest crowd in the four games played. Cheers jb.
Caltex & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
Thanks that's not bad.
AZ_RBB
Guest
A little over 16k.
Josh
Guest
A touch over 16k
Caltex & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
AZ---do you know what the attendance figure was last night?
AZ_RBB
Guest
Don't even know what to think. How do you create that many great chances and then get belted 3-0? I felt that our heads dropped after we missed so many chances in the first 70mins. Extraordinary loss though I know Santalab has scored a lot of goals for us but I still don't believe he should be starting. Lachlan Scott is perfectly capable. Hopefully this is the last time Popa goes with Santa starting and backs Scott to get the job done. 0-7 goal difference at Olympic Stadium is a pretty woeful record as well. Scary to think we'll have another 3 games there. I think next season we need to put our foot down and tell Big Bash that we need Spotless to December 10. Play 3 games at ANZ during the Big Bash including the January Derby and play 10 at Spotless. The 8/5 split is horrible. Yes, I know MVFC have done a similar split for years. But that is a long concept and Docklands is 40k seats smaller than Olympic Stadium.
Cool and Cold
Guest
If Jamie Maclaren scores 15 goals consecutively for 3 years, masters headers and foot works as good as Berisha, he is worth for $750,000 a year.
punter
Guest
James I totally agree with you, the English style is the high team spirit, mentally strong & combative. They are technically and strategically far in advance of most English sides bar 2-3 teams. I get the 'why do you always have always play out form the back, what is wrong with the occasional old fashion hoof when the situation requires'. My point being AM can do adapt to most opposition, because they have the ability to & also don't have the extreme superstars outside of Griezmen. Oh BTW, I rate Simone as one of the best coaches in the world.
j binnie
Guest
Punter- I maybe took advantage of you citing the Spurs team of 1960.They were a European team of the highest quality for the time with a host of international class players,Brown ,Mackay, and White,(Scotland), Norman. Smith. Greaves. & Henry (England), Medwin and Jones (Wales), and their captain ,Danny Blanchflower (Ireland). This of course was in the days before the "English invasion" by other country's players but Spurs were still a team feared in European comps.They had won the English league scoring 115 goals in 42 games conceding only 55 and were watched in their "derby" match with West Ham by 66.000 fans Smith was regarded as an enigma by those who watched this team"s sweet play, for he was a big strong spearhead to their efforts, but just as necessary to the overall function of the team as was the so called "white ghost", the master play-maker, the diminuative John White,whilst the "goal.machine", the much smaller Jimmy Greaves, relished in the spaces Smith created. jb
James Jackson
Guest
I think your comments do Diego Simeone a bit an of an injustice there Punter, his style is more strategised and has produced more results than the so-called English style. In a league featuring the world's two best club teams, what he's done consistently with a changing squad has been remarkable. Also, while he hasn't won the Champions League, his record suggests his style is effective against all kinds of opposition. Actually I'm being too harsh considering the contents of your comment, but calling it English style I feel is inaccurate at any rate.
punter
Guest
JB, I give you the example of Atletico Madrid, I would say one of the best British style team in the world. They cannot match Barcelona or Real Madrid's big superstars, so they rely on strong team spirit (epitomised by their coach), they are combative, mentally strong, fit, strong & relies on quick counter attacks. What makes them different is they have players with high technical quality who can hold the ball & rest while waiting for the right time to counter attack. They also can play the possession type football against some of the weaker LaLiga teams, they still have a lot of superstars themselves. So they can be very effective, but if teams (pick a whole host of lower EPL sides) are bereft of highly skilled players, well they can only play 1 way, the combative, fit, strong, fast, strong team spirit direct way, there is no option.
j binnie
Guest
The difference in the 2 teams can be put down to one factor, two "old fashioned centre -forwards doing what "old fashioned centre -forwards were supposed to do". The difference?. One scored 3 goals the other missed 2 "sitters" Meanwhile, across the Tasman, another "throwback" to those days was by sheer strength,energy,willingness to work and downright combativeness,was creating havoc in their opponents defence whillst the more recognised stars were netting 3 very good goals. Football tactics?,a strange world indeed. Cheers jb.