Clinical Victory hit four past Perth

Melbourne Victory have kept alive the Premiership race and ended their Perth Glory hoodoo after romping to a 4-1 win over the WA outfit at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

The home side hadn’t beaten Perth in their last eight outings and they got off to an inauspicious start when Diego Castro opened the scoring against the run of play after just five minutes.

However Victory rallied on the back of a vintage Besart Berisha performance, with their talisman netting his 99th Hyundai A-League goal before teeing up Fahid Ben Khalfallah in sensational fashion before the break.

Both sides continued to play an expansive brand of football after the interval but just when it looked like Glory would draw level they were hit with a sucker punch via the boot of Marco Rojas.

James Troisi celebrated his recall to the Caltex Socceroos fold with a sublime individual effort to bank Victory’s fourth, while Lawrence Thomas made a couple of spectacular late saves to maintain the final three goal margin.

The result means Kevin Muscat’s side have now won nine of their last 11 home matches, while Glory have work to do over the remaining four rounds in their quest to host an Elimination Final.

Catch up with all the action at the match centre here

GOALS

0-1 Perth Glory: Diego Castro, 5’

A goal bound Adam Taggart header was well saved by Thomas following a cross from Andy Keogh but Castro was on hand to lash home the parry from an acute angle.

1-1 Melbourne Victory: Besart Berisha, 23’

Marco Rojas picked out the front post run of his strike partner with a curling free-kick, with Berisha heading strongly between Liam Reddy and the post to draw his side level.

Besart Berisha

2-1 Melbourne Victory: Fahid Ben Khalfallah, 42’

Berisha dug into his bag of tricks, juggling the ball multiple times on the byline before whipping in a cross with his back to goal that the Tunisian nodded home after getting the better of Josh Risdon.

3-1 Melbourne Victory: Marco Rojas, 48’

The home side hit Glory in transition with Ben Khalfallah feeding the run of Rojas, who darted towards goal before cutting inside Marc Warren and bending the ball inside the far post.

4-1 Melbourne Victory: James Troisi, 73’

The in-form midfielder did it all himself, winning the ball and ghosting past a couple of defenders before hammering the ball past Reddy who was left rooted to the spot.

Re-live the action on Twitter

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