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03Feb23
Melbourne Come From Behind To Overpower Wellington
by Jeremy Ruane
Bottom-placed Melbourne Victory bounced back to winning ways in the Isuzu Ute A-League on February 3, coming from behind to overpower Wellington Phoenix 3-1 in front of 5400 fans at AAMI Park, a ground which continues to be a graveyard for the visiting team.
This is the sixteenth time Wellington has lost to Melbourne Victory at this venue, a ground where they last won in 2017. But in the first thirty minutes of this match, only one team looked like winning the contest, and it certainly wasn't the team propping up the league table!
It took just five minutes for Wellington to first threaten, Finn Surman's ball forward being headed back by David Ball into the stride of Oskar Zawada, who sent a twenty yard volley blazing over the bar.
Cadete's long-range effort in the eleventh minute, which fizzed past Oli Sail's left-hand upright, was Melbourne's response to the visitors' opening gambit, but when Wellington attacked again two minutes later, they took the lead in fine style.
Alex Rufer slipped a pass into the stride of Joshua Laws, who was striding out of defence to join the attack. The central defender whipped in a perfectly flighted cross for Zawada, lurking between defenders near the penalty spot. The striker leapt above all-comers to send a towering header soaring over Matt Acton and under the bar - a fine targetman's goal.
And it was a goal Wellington fully deserved, given their dominant start. Steven Ugarkovic looked to build on it halfway through the half, but volleyed well wide on receipt of a cleared corner.
The only black mark on the visitors' display in the opening half-hour was against Callan Elliot, who earned himself a yellow card for persistent infringement on Wellington's right, where he was finding Ben Folami to be a real handful, and fouled him repeatedly as a result.
That apart, however, Wellington was dominant, and Melbourne a team seemingly bereft of self-belief … and then they scored, and it all came flooding back in copious waves with which the visitors ultimately couldn't cope.
In the 32nd minute, Jason Geria, Leigh Broxham and Nishan Velupillay worked an opening on the right which culminated in Jake Brimmer switching play to the other side of the pitch, Folami the beneficiary of the midfielder's cross-field pass.
He turned the ball into the stride of Josh Brillante, whose shot was superbly saved at close quarters by Sail. But the rebound fell invitingly to Bruno Fornaroli some eight yards out from goal, from where he rammed home an equaliser to the delight of the natives, whose 2022-3 season has been one they would prefer to forget to date for all sorts of reasons, not all of them on-field-sourced.
From that moment on, belief surged through Melbourne's veins, so much so that they carved out four opportunities to take the lead in the last six minutes of the first half, as a shell-shocked Wellington, missing three of their first-choice players - the injured Clayton Lewis and Scott Wootton, and the suspended Tim Payne - strove to maintain level terms prior to the interval.
Folami had a shot blocked to safety, while from Brimmer's resulting corner, the unmarked Roderick Miranda charged through the crowd to send a thumping header bulleting narrowly past the near post in the fortieth minute.
Two minutes later, Folami teamed up with Velupillay to present Cadete with a chance which curled narrowly past the same upright, while with time all but up at the end of the half, Folami and Cadete combined to pick out Fornaroli, who thrashed a volley over the bar from eight yards, but did so from an offside position.
Wellington began the second spell in much the same manner as they'd commenced the first - on attack. Five minutes after the resumption of play, Ball rode two tackles before finding half-time substitute Ben Old, whose cross for Zawada was intercepted by Matt Bozinovski.
Back came the home team, Brillante being denied a goal as the free-kick which led to it was taken too quickly - referee Adam Kersey was still in the process of booking Surman for a foul on Brimmer just outside the penalty area.
And how the victim of that foul made Wellington pay, Brimmer curling a gem of a 54th minute free-
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kick round the wall and beyond the flailing fingertips of Sail into the 'keeper's top left-hand corner of the net - 2-1 Melbourne, the first time they'd scored more than a single goal in a game since November.
Wellington should have been afforded the opportunity to draw level from the penalty spot just two minutes later. Ball evaded a couple of challenges before inviting Costa Barbarouses to cross to the far post, where Zawada was lurking with intent.
His header was spilled by Acton, who, in his eagerness to recover the ball, clattered into Ball, leaving the striker with a knee injury which required strapping before he could continue. Quite how neither referee Kersey nor the Video Assistant Referee found grounds for a penalty to be given defies logic - suffice to say, Wellington were livid, and with justification aplenty.
Back came Melbourne, Cadete pursuing a lost cause before whipping in a cross to the near post from the left-hand by-line, Fornaroli his intended target. Laws read the danger well, prompting a Wellington raid which culminated in Zawada finding himself alone in Melbourne's penalty area when support was most needed.
The home team cleared their lines on this occasion, but looked on with relief as Ugarkovic sent a twenty-five yarder sizzling past Acton's left-hand post in the 65th minute - remarkably, the last shot Wellington fired in anger until the dying minutes of the match.
Meantime, Melbourne assumed the ascendancy - they didn't look like a team which would remain in last place for too much longer. Fifteen minutes from time, Velupillay picked out Brillante, who produced some delightful close control before inviting the man who played the ball to him to unleash a shot on goal.
Surman blocked Velupillay's attempt, but within seconds, Bozinovski sent a low cross screaming across the face of goal following a Brimmer corner. No one in blue was on hand to turn it home, the ball instead finding its way to Brillante again.
His drive crashed against the base of the far post, with Fornaroli's thunderous drive from the rebound being blocked at point-blank range by Ball, who was injured by the effort and was unable to continue, a hand injury seemingly prompting his departure.
Six minutes from time, Melbourne spurned a great chance to clinch the points. Miranda broke out of defence on the left before threading the ball through to Folami, who could have raced on towards goal to leave himself one-on-one with Sail.
But with Fornaroli better placed ahead of him, the winger found himself in two minds, and ultimately delivered a pass which reflected that uncertainty - it was certainly too far in front of Fornaroli for the striker to take advantage of.
Wellington's belated pursuit of an equaliser saw Old see a shot blocked to safety in the 89th minute. Melbourne cleared their lines, with substitute William Wilson walloping one downfield from halfway towards no one in particular.
It appeared destined to be Sail's ball, but Surman was running back towards his penalty area, covering the run of Melbourne substitute Tomi Juric. Quite why the defender didn't just cover the ball back to his goalkeeper only Surman can explain, but the confusion between the rare starter and Wellington's number one resulted in Juric finding himself with an open goal to exploit - 3-1, game over.
Wellington pounded away in search of a consolation goal in stoppage time, with Acton right behind a Yan Sasse twenty-yarder before Laws saw a volley deflected to safety. Then Acton pulled off a stunning save to prevent Nicholas Pennington's close range header from finding the net following a corner by the visitors, for whom this late flurry was far too little, far too late - they had the winning of this match early doors, but ended up deservedly beaten.
Melbourne: Acton; Geria, Bozinovski, Miranda, Cadete (Wilson, 89); Brillante, Brimmer, Broxham (Konstandopoulos, 90); Velupillay (Nigro, 89), Fornaroli (Juric, 86), Folami (Adams, 90)
Wellington: Sail; Elliot (booked, 25), Surman (booked, 52), Laws, Mauragis (Sutton, 71); Ball (Van Hattum, 78), Rufer (Pennington, 78), Ugarkovic, Kraev (Old, 46); Barbarouses (Sasse, 71), Zawada
Referee: Adam Kersey
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