Melbourne Victory’s attacking riches made the difference in consigning Western Sydney Wanderers to a 3-0 defeat at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
Oliver Bozanic scored the opener in the 26th minute, Jai Ingham the crucial second in the 65th and Maxi Beister the 85th minute sealer on debut, but that does nothing to tell the tale of what was quite simply a bizarre game played out in front of 21,480 fans.
Victory should have been 2-0 up at half time only for a Mitch Austin header to be inexplicably ruled out for offside when he was clearly on just before the break.
But that would have been more than rough on the Wanderers who could justifiably claim it should have been them who headed to the sheds on top such was their dominance in general play.
With that disallowed, albeit wrongfully, Wanderers coach Tony Popovic would then be within his rights to claim his side should have been given a 54th minute penalty to go 1-1 after Jumpei Kusukami was clearly felled by Jason Geria in the box.
And then Victory counterpart Kevin Muscat would see Popovic’s penalty shout and raise him another that could have later seen the score go to 3-0 after Beister was taken out by Jack Clisby on the edge of the area literally seconds after the German’s introduction off the bench.
That Beister would go on to make it 3-0 12 minutes later will, thankfully for the A-League’s refereeing department, mean the end result should not be of any dispute, despite the earlier calls and non calls.
In what was a game of the old cliched two halves, the visitors had the better of a first half that failed to reach any great heights and the hosts the better of a high octane second 45 minutes that had pulses racing right across the ground.
Bruno Pinatares and Dimas Delgado were superb in midfield for Western Sydney all night, but in the end their side would be made to pay for a lack of cutting edge close to goal.
Leigh Broxham played up to his Mr Utility status brilliantly in a starring role for Victory at the unfamiliar position of left back, but it was the performance of Fahid Ben Khalfallah that would be most pleasing for Victory fans.
The Tunisian, much like his side as a whole, was not at the races for the first 40 minutes or so - save for a goal against the run of play when a disastrous turnover by Aritz Borda led to Besart Berisha squaring the ball across to Bozanic to tap in the opener.
But after switching wings with Austin, Ben Khalfallah then came to life on the left in a highly enterprising display for the 35 minutes until he was replaced by Beister.
It was his pinpoint cross to Austin that led to the disallowed goal on the stroke of half time, but in general play he showed plenty of glimpses of the dash and dare that saw him win the Victory Medal in 2014-15.
In the opening half hour the Wanderers had had 64 per cent of possession, 174 passes to 94 and four shots to three, but at half time had registered just one shot on target, which perhaps explains why Brendon Santalab was sacrificed for Kerem Bulut at the break.
But the change didn’t have the desired effect for Popovic, as Victory got more and more of a foothold in the game.
After Ingham scored the second, a back post header over the top of Clisby after a cross in from James Troisi, the visitors started to drift out of the game.
Beister’s goal, another tap in, with Ingham this time turning provider, was the icing on the cake.
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