Melbourne Victory reclaim top spot with easy win over Wellington Phoenix

Melbourne Victory have jumped back to the top of the A-League table after brushing aside Wellington Phoenix.

The reigning champions went two points clear after easily winning their Round 19 catch up fixture and left the Phoenix with work to do to keep their four-point lead in sixth position.

Melbourne Victory: 4 (Tim Brown (og) ‘16, Archie Thompson ‘50, Carlos Hernandez ’66, Matthew Kemp ‘87)
Wellington Phoenix: 0
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Crowd: 18,819

The Victory started the brighter of the two sides and got their reward for early forward pressure when Carlos Hernandez curled a free-kick into the area that deflected off Phoenix vice-captain Tim Brown’s head and into the back of Liam Reddy’s goal.

The home side were determined to make it three in a row at home and reclaim top spot on the league table and were by far the better of the two sides in the first half with the Phoenix seemingly floundering on another trip away from home.

The first term ended 1-0 to the Victory but soon after the break the lead was doubled when Costa Rican import Marvin Angulo played a lovely long through ball for Archie Thompson and the competition’s all-time leading scorer did not need a second invitation to control the ball and knock it through for his 10th of the season.

Just over 15 minutes later, the Victory went three up when Hernandez tucked his 10th goal away after good build up play from Robbie Kruse who cut it across the defence to Hernandez who was completely unmarked in the area and finished off the work.

Melbourne were in complete control and got a fourth through right-back Matthew Kemp who took a nice run through midfield before laying it off to Nicky Ward who instinctively used a back heel to knock it back into Kemp’s path and the ex-Adelaide United player duly slotted it away to round out the comprehensive win.