Victory in Melbourne 

Welcome to Victory In Melbourne’s minute by minute analysis of Melbourne Victory’s clash against North Queensland Fury at Dairy Farmers Stadium, kickoff at 9pm AEST.

(Note: This page does not automatically update so you are going have to keep hitting that refresh button to see what’s going on.)

Congratulations to Matthew Foschini on his starting debut. Langerak (gk), Muscat (c), Kemp, Thompson, Vargas, Pondeljak, Foschini, Kruse, Ward, Leijer, Suksomskit. On the bench, Brebner, Moss (gk), Pilkington and Elasi. That’s one attacking starting XI.

8:57pm: Sydney defeat Adelaide 1-0, meaning that the Victory need to win to stay on top of the table.

Starting XI for the Fury. Pasfield (gk), Middelby, Tadrosse, Spagnuolo, Fowler (c), Brockie, Busch, Grossman, Daal, Smith, G., Smith, M. On the bench: Henderson (gk), McBreen, Kohler, Cooke

3 mins: Langerak almost gifts the Fury a golden opportunity as he looks to escort the ball out of bounds. Not long after Busch puts in one of the most ordinary tackles you will ever see. Lucky not to pick up a card.

7 mins: Very scrappy opening with neither team holding possession for more than a few seconds.

9 mins: First shot for the Victory with a long range effort from Pondeljak that goes well wide.

10 mins: Middleby makes some good space for himself in the penalty area but his shot is straight at Langerak.

12 mins: Thompson picks up a free kick in a dangerous position after being fouled by Spagnuolo. Free kick taken by Sutsomkit, cleared by the Fury.

15 mins: Muscat puts a brilliant through ball to Kruse, but Pasfield was out quickly to deny any scoring opportunity. Melbourne starting to get on top.

18 mins: Vargas almost puts the ball into the back of his own net after a somewhat innocuous clearance. Langerak breathing a definite sigh of relief.

24 mins: Muscat cops a Jeremy Brockie drive straight in the head. Like the true champion he is, just gets up and keeps playing.

28 mins: Langerak makes a brilliant save to deny Jeremy Brockie after the ball takes a deflection off Vargas.

31 mins: Goal to North Queensland Fury as Dyron Daal puts it past Langerak. You could almost see that one coming. Melbourne certainly have some work to do having barely touched the ball in the last five to ten minutes.

39 mins: Melbourne currently playing without a midfield at the moment and is a key reason why they aren’t creating any decent chances on goal.

40 mins: Vargas puts a header wide of the mark after getting free of his marker at a corner. Will definitely be disappointed that he didn’t find the back of the net with that effort.

45 mins: That’s the first half done and dusted. It has been a disappointing performance so far by the Victory and it’s definitely time for one of those half-time sprays from Ernie Merrick.

46 mins: Grant Brebner comes on for Sutee Suksomkit at the break. Hopefully that brings some steel to the Melbourne midfield. It also means the last appearance for Suksomkit in Victory colours as his loan spell comes to an end.

47 mins: Thompson forces a save out of Pasfield after being put through by Kruse.

50 mins: Plenty of free kicks going the way of the Victory at the start of the second half as they look to impose themselves on the game.

51 mins: I give Daal 5 out of 10 for that dive. Very lucky not see himself going into the book for that one and didn’t Muscat let Peter Green know about it as well.

56 mins: Green misses a fairly obvious handball in the box after Thompson looks to fire a ball across the penalty area. Must be the week for referees missing handballs, but to Melbourne’s credit they didn’t actually appeal for a penalty unlike the Mariners. Wouldn’t mind seeing Elasi getting a run about now. Could definitely cause some problems to the Fury defence.

60 mins: Daal somehow manages to beat three Melbourne defenders but thankfully doesn’t get his shot on target.

66 mins: Langerak makes a crucial block to deny Brockie. After an early period of dominance by the Victory, the Fury are well and truly back in the swing of things and causing some headaches for the Melbourne defence. This performance is very reminiscent of efforts against Perth in recent seasons.

71 mins: Time to give Kruse a rest, his first touch for most of the second half has been woeful. Merrick replaces Foschini with Football Superstar winner, Luke Pilkington. Not the change I would have made.

75 mins: Melbourne’s continual use of the long ball is starting to look a little predictable with no real chances ever being created from them as the Fury defence clean them up time after time.

78 mins: Pondeljak, who has largely been ineffectual tonight, has been replaced by Elasi. On another note, how are we losing to a team that has Beau Busch playing for it.

87 mins: Rather tame effort from Elasi leaves Pasfield with an easy save. Game has rather petered out with both teams not producing any real highlights - it’s also probably the reason why I haven’t added anything for nearly ten minutes.

89 mins: Contrary to what Messrs Cockerill and Harper just said, McBreen did make a play at the ball as he run right passed it and was like only two feet away from the ball. It may sound like sour grapes, but our two esteemed were definitely against the Victory right from the get go.

90 mins: Three minutes of added time, it looks likes Melbourne will surrender it’s lead to the boys in baby blue. But we do have a game in hand.

90+3 mins: And there goes the final whistle. A disappointing performance from the Victory where we never really looked that threatening in the final third of the pitch. Certainly missed the influence of Hernandez in the midfield as without him it was pretty much non-existent. Definitely not the way we wanted to finish off 2009, especially surrendering the league lead to Sydney.