Costa Barbarouses and Mitch Nichols scored their first goals for Melbourne Victory as Kevin Muscat's men thrashed Adelaide United on Saturday, despite playing the entire second half with 10 men.
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Melbourne broke the deadlock on 14 minutes when James Troisi sprung the offside trap and squared the ball to Barbarouses, who tapped home from close range.
Victory defender Adrian Leijer was then sent off in the final minute of the opening period, after picking up a second yellow card for pulling Sergio Olivare Cirio to the floor.
The visitors were presented with a golden opportunity to level the scores just after the hour mark when Jeronimo Neumann was brought down by Pablo Contreras in the penalty area.
However, Cirio's tame spot kick was parried by Nathan Coe before Neumann's mishit rebound trickled wide.
Victory rubbed salt into Adelaide wounds by doubling their lead within seconds of Cirio's miss, as Archie Thompson finished calmly from six yards.
Nichols then wrapped up the win 14 minutes from full time to ensure that Victory bounced back after losing their last two A-League games.
The result also means that Victory have still never lost a home game in which they have scored first.
Robert Summerscales
