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Western United have completed a remarkable comeback to earn A-League bragging rights over Melbourne Victory, recovering from two goals down to win 3-2.
Scott McDonald was the hero as Western United produced a remarkable comeback to win their first A-League clash with Melbourne Victory, recovering from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 at Marvel Stadium.
United pulled Saturday night's game back to 2-2 at halftime, before McDonald scored the winner in the 51st minute to secure bragging rights in front of 20,865 fans.
"We were courageous; (we) kept on playing; we kept on doing the things that we worked on; the team that we wanted to be and you get rewarded for it," United coach Mark Rudan said.
"It's persistence - it's courage. It's a belief in our principles of play. So I'm really, really happy for them."
United continued their trend of slow starts, with Victory taking a 2-0 lead after just seven minutes.
First, Andrew Durante's pass was intercepted with Leigh Broxham nipping the ball away to Kristijan Dobras, who found Ola Toivonen.
The Victory skipper drove forward and unleashed a fizzing strike into the bottom corner in the sixth minute.
Less than two minutes later, United paid for another turnover.
Under pressure, Connor Chapman attempted to push the ball forward, with Adama Traore pinching it and slipping it to Elvis Kamsoba, who nudged it to Toivonen.
The captain laid the ball off to Dobras, who powered home his team's second goal.
United fought their way back into the game through a moment of brilliance from Alessandro Diamanti in the 16th minute.
A shallow clearance fell to Diamanti who lashed home a long-range strike with his left foot.
In the 29th minute, United equalised.
McDonald whipped a ball to the back post, with Josh Risdon heading it across goal.
Besart Berisha slid in between Thomas Deng and James Donachie to bundle the ball over the line, with the final touch coming off Donachie for an own-goal.
United took the lead six minutes into the second half through McDonald, who received a cut-back from Panagiotis Kone, turned on the ball and drove a deflected strike home.
Victory had late chances to equalise but United held on for a memorable win.
"Disappointed and also a little bit surprised because I think we started very well - you cannot start better in a derby," Victory coach Marco Kurz said.
"We were winning 2-0 and, after we conceded the first goal, we dropped a little bit too much back, gave them too much time to set up their game and we must speak about what happened between (the 20-minute mark) and halftime."
