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Melbourne Victory's hopes of winning the A-League Men premiership remain alive after beating Sydney FC 4-1 to leap to the top of the table.
Melbourne Victory have beaten Sydney FC 4-1 to leap to top of the A-League Men table and throw down their claim to the premiership.
Nick D'Agostino's remarkable individual goal gave Victory the lead in the 14th minute of Saturday night's match in Sydney but just two minutes later Adam Le Fondre pulled off a wonderful chip to equalise.
Jake Brimmer and Jason Geria sent Victory clear in the 30th and 38th minutes before Brendan Hamill added an exclamation mark with his goal in the 87th.
Victory's first win over Sydney in 10 attempts sent them two points clear of Melbourne City and three ahead of Western United - who are both yet to play their final-round matches - and all but sealed a top-two spot and a week off in finals.
It also effectively scuppered Western United's premiership hopes, as John Aloisi's side would need to beat Adelaide by at least six goals on Sunday, and also means Melbourne City must defeat Wellington on Monday to land the premiers plate.
"We've done our part," said coach Tony Popovic after Victory extended their unbeaten run to 15 matches.
"We handled the pressure very well, we got the desired result, we scored four goals at a place that we haven't won as a club in a long time.
We dealt with that well, so I'm very happy for the group and now we'll see what happens.
"It's out of our hands now, but we'll wait and see what happens in the next few days."
D'Agostino was in serious pain after landing on his already-strapped left shoulder in the 44th minute.
But he played down the concern post-match while Popovic said the Socceroo had aggravated an existing shoulder complaint but expected him to be fine.
Victory struck first when D'Agostino flicked the ball past Alex Wilkinson, charged forward, cut inside James Donachie, cut outside and then smashed the ball, on a tight angle, into the roof of the net.
He celebrated with the travelling Victory fans, who in their exuberance, had the Kogarah fence collapse underneath them.
Two minutes later Le Fondre chested the ball down then brilliantly dipped a left-footed chip over Ivan Kelava.
Victory regained the lead on the half-hour mark when Brimmer sent his free kick up and over the wall for a memorable goal.
Eight minutes later, Brimmer swung a wonderful corner to the near post for Geria to glance home.
Sydney's Bobo entered in the 71st minute for his final home appearance but didn't score and Victory rounded out their performance when Jason Davidson's late corner bobbled around and Hamill charged in to smash home a header.
"We conceded three set pieces tonight," said Sydney coach Steve Corica.
"Obviously switching off at the wrong times. We know they have good delivery with Brimmer or Davidson
"But I think all the games have caught up with us, we looked very tired tonight."
