A Kosta Barbarouses second-half hat-trick saw the Melbourne Victory come away with an impressive 5-0 win over the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium.
The Victory came into the game off the back of a hard-fought win against the Newcastle Jets only a few days prior and went in with two changes to the side as Barbarouses and Rahmat Akbari came in for Kenny Athiu and Josh Hope.
While Brisbane, who were defeated by Melbourne City last Friday were looking to get their second win of the season as they welcomed in Nicholas D’Agostino, Stefan Nigro, Daniel Bowles and Joe Caletti.
The Victory started the game the hotter when Ola Toivonen got on the end of a beautiful cross from Terry Antonis to head home the opener and his eighth for the season.
However, Brisbane showed signs of urgency and looked to get back in the game as the likes of Adam Taggart, D’Agostino and Eric Bautheac all came close but were unable to hit the target and were beaten by some brilliant keeping by Lawrence Thomas.
With the Roar showing signs of promise heading into break, they looked like they very well could have gotten something from the game but were beaten by some good work from Barbarouses which led to a penalty for the away side.
The Kiwi international slammed home the subsequent penalty as the flood-gates opened moments later when Storm Roux headed home his second Victory goal and put the result beyond doubt.
Matters were made worse when even more poor defending from Brisbane led to Barbarouses scoring his second after some brilliant work from James Troisi teed him up for a fantastic finessed effort from range.
Finally, Elvis Kamsoba was able to wriggle his way through traffic to tee up Barbarouses who had his hat-trick and as a result saw the Victory close in on top spot.
Brisbane will look back to the drawing board as they continue to search for win number two away to the winless Central Coast Mariners on Sunday night, while the Victory host Wellington in a huge top of the table clash at AAMI Park on Sunday evening.
