City roll Victory in six goal rout

MELBOURNE Victory coach Grant Brebner has conceded his club’s hit rock bottom after letting in five second-half goals in the most humiliating loss in the former A-League power club’s history.

Victory were torn apart at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night as rampant Melbourne City put the hosts to the sword in a record-breaking 6-0 derby demolition.

And while City’s performance was breathtaking, propelling them into the top six with a third consecutive win, the fallout will centre on last-placed Victory and their under-fire coach.

“It quite simply wasn’t good enough,” Brebner said. “I’m not going to sit here and try to find excuses for it.

“It was an unacceptable 90 minutes, never mind the second half, it was humiliating.

City dominated the clubs’ 33rd meeting from the outset and took a first-half lead in fortuitous circumstances when the ball deflected off the inside of Jamie Maclaren’s left leg and dribbled over the line.

But it was well deserved and goals to Florin Berenguer and Rostyn Griffiths within 11 minutes of the restart were a fair return on the run of play.

McLaren twice teed up Connor Metcalfe for goals in the space of three minutes to rub salt in Victory’s wounds and substitute Stefan Colakovski completed the rout when he fired a low shot past helpless goalkeeper Max Crocombe in added time.

The six-goal margin was the greatest in the Melbourne rivalry’s history, eclipsing City’s 4-0 win almost seven years ago to the day, when they were still known as Melbourne Heart.

And it came despite golden boot leader Maclaren blasting a penalty kick against the crossbar in a string of missed first-half chances.

United go down in Ballarat

Twenty-four hours later Western United had its two-game winning streak snapped by the visiting Western Sydney Wanderers losing 1-0 at Mars Stadium in Ballarat on Sunday.

Making his first Wanderers’ start, Jordon Mutch secured the win for the visitors when he seized on a calamitous error from Jerry Skotadis deep in United’s half, stole the ball and fired past substitute keeper Ryan Scott in the 57th minute.

“(Tonight) was a hard-fought win. Good teams find ways to win and I think tonight we needed to do that,” said assistant manager Kenny Miller.

Despite the loss United coach Mark Rudan had positive things to say about his team.

“It was a very good performance,” he said. “We did everything but score.

“We started off a little bit slow, they had a lot of the ball but they didn’t really do much but, then again, neither did we.

“I thought we had the better chances – it’s one of those games where I can’t fault the performance.”

United were forced into a reshuffle midway through the first half when standout goalkeeper Filip Kurto, was injured in a goalmouth scramble, moments after denying a deflected Graham Dorrans shot.

Replacement netminder Ryan Scott’s first real test came in the 49th when Daniel Wilmering hammered a volleyed effort goalward, forcing Scott to get down low with his legs to keep it out.

He could do nothing, however, to stop Mutch’s effort eight minutes later.

His side pressing hard looking for a leveller, Dylan Pierias thought he’d equalised in the 65th minute when he created a yard of space from outside the penalty box and shot just wide.

Besart Berisha had calls for a late penalty turned down before Wanderers’ keeper Daniel Margush produced a strong save to deny Nicolas Milanovic a headed 91st-minute equaliser.

-BY AAP