December 27, 2008

SUBSTITUTES Nick Ward and Ney Fabiano both scored late goals as Melbourne Victory continued Sydney FC's horror run with a dramatic comeback 3-2 win at Telstra Dome.

It was the third straight defeat for Sydney, who are now struggling to stay in touch with the top four and under huge pressure after entering the season as title favourites. For the Victory it solidified their standing inside the four, breaking a three-game losing run.

It was a remarkable escape for Melbourne, after Sydney made an incredible start, going two goals up in the first three minutes.

A flare set off by Victory supporters left Melbourne's defensive goal clouded in smoke for the opening minutes of the game, but it was Sydney who provided the fireworks.

With out-of-form marquee frontman John Aloisi on the bench, it was some lesser lights who did the damage.

Shannon Cole stunned the home side with a curling left-footer which gave Victory goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos no chance at the 30-second mark.

Youngster Brendan Gan topped that effort three minutes in, with a rocketing 25m right-footer just inside the left post to continue Sydney's dream start.

The shocked Melbourne crowd was buoyed slightly when striker Danny Allsopp cannoned into John Kosmina on the sidelines, knocking the Sydney coach off his feet.

They were even happier when Melbourne's star striker Archie Thompson opened his side's scoring in the 14th minute, after being found clear in the box following a quickly taken Carlos Hernandez free-kick.

Victory had the best of the remainder of the first half, but Sydney still held a 2-1 lead when Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick turned to his bench players at the 63-minute mark.

Fabiano and Matthew Kemp were brought into the game first, with Ward introduced seven minutes later, while the game was stopped for Sydney to tend to a Gan injury.

Immediately upon the resumption, Hernandez passed to Ward, who used his first touch to weave past a defender, then fired in a scorching 20m shot to level the scores.

Victory would probably have settled for a draw, given their poor start, but Fabiano delivered all three points with a sliding goal from close range in the 79th minute to send Sydney off in despair.

Victory captain Kevin Muscat said he always had a sense that Melbourne would overcome their horror start.
"You get those games sometimes where I could just tell we were going to get back into the game," Muscat said.

"The noise that I could hear, the belief that was going around the place, in fact we were disappointed not to come in at half-time even.

"But as soon as we got that second goal there was only one winner.

"... It was a great win for us, great result, one of the best probably."

Sydney coach John Kosmina said his side's start might have been too incredible for their own good.

"I was calling out from the bench ... 'forget about what's happened, we need to stay focussed'," he said.

"We lost a little bit of attention with their first goal and that's what gave Melbourne a bit of confidence.

"Had we switched on for that, not allowed it to happen, it could have been a vastly different story."