Melbourne Victory have moved up to third place on the Isuzu UTE A-League table after a nervy 4-1 win over Central Coast Mariners that wasn’t truly sealed until stoppage time.
Nishan Velupillay, Juan Mata, Nikos Vergos and Jason Davidson were the goal scorers for the Victory, after Sabit Ngor gave CCM the opener in the early stages of the game.
Victory – inspired by yet another brilliant performance from Spanish maestro Juan Mata – were the dominant side for large parts of the game, but couldn’t truly relax until Vergos’s counterattacking goal right on the cusp of stoppage time.
Victory now sit above Adelaide United on goal difference, while Central Coast’s eight match unbeaten streak coming to an end has left them a point outside the top six following Macarthur’s upset win over Auckland earlier today.
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It looked like CCM could have continued the chaos of that result early in this game when Ngor looped home the opener for CCM inside seven minutes, after Victory custodian Jack Warshawsky came out to smother a chance for Nathaneal Blair that ended up at the Kenyan’s feet.
It was a shock for the Melbourne side, but functioned as a warning for how the Mariners were going to attack the game, with Blair and Ngor using their pace to breach the Victory backline twice more in the first half.
Warshawsky had to be bailed out on both occasions, with Roderick Miranda sticking tight to Blair after the Victory keeper had misjudged his attempt and gotten caught out of the box, and Sebastian Esposito coolly clearing off the line when Ngor looked like he’d looped in a second.
Despite these chances, the Victory were the stronger side to half time and had been frustrated by a brilliant Central Coast rearguard engineered chiefly by Andrew Redmayne and Victory old boys Storm Roux and James Donachie.
Mata head chances cleared off the line by both Roux and Donachie which — along with chances spurned by Velupillay, Jordi Valadon and Josh Ralinws — would have Melbourne Victory wondering if this game was going to be a repeat of the reverse fixture in early February.
Fortunately for the boys in navy blue they didn’t have to wait long to crack the Central Coast defence after half time, with Velupillay’s equaliser coming in the 50th minute.
Victory skipper Roderick Miranda stayed up for a corner and found himself on the spot to deliver a back post ball which Velupillay got on to the end of and punched home after stealing into space between two defenders.
Velupillay was involved again in the winning goal just four minutes later, playing a 1-2 with Mata before thundering a piledriven effort that Redmayne could only push back directly in front of him for the diminutive Spanish genius to follow in for a bit of a collector’s item — a headed goal.
Victory looked like they’d franked their dominance in the 63rd minute when Velupillay had the ball in the back of the net again, only for it to be ruled offside.
The men from Melbourne continued to pour on the pressure after that but couldn’t fashion the third that gave them breathing space.
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Charles Nduka — who has become Victory’s first choice striker — had a great chance to score a third, while subs Keegan Jelacic and Matt Grimaldi looked certain to find a goal in the 80th minute but couldn’t quite force the ball in.
The Mariners gave Victory two big scares just before stoppage time, with Ali Auglah’s 88th ball to the back post nearly sliding in, and Bailey Brandtman having a big chance that led to Victory sealing the points.
Brandtman’s effort rebounded to Mata who shuffled the ball to Vergos in Victory’s own half, and the Greek striker put his shoulder down and ran with the ball 70 metres to score the third goal that finally put the result beyond doubt.
A goal on return to Davidson was the icing on the cake for Victory, who move up to third and next take on Wellington Phoenix at AAMI Park on April 5 after the international break.
Meanwhile for Central Coast, Perth Glory await at polytec Stadium on April 4.
ALEX TOBIN MEDAL VOTES:
3. Juan Mata
2. Jordi Valadon
1. Nishan Velupillay
