A-League: Wellington Phoenix 2 Melbourne Victory 0

Wellington Phoenix outclassed Melbourne Victory 2-0 on Wednesday with Marco Rojas stealing the show at Westpac Stadium.

The livewire midfielder tormented the Victory defence from the beginning until he was substituted with just a couple of minutes to go. He set up the first goal and scored the second as his pace and skill on the ball had even his team-mates guessing at times.

The match was scoreless until the 67th minute but it wasn’t for the lack of chances for both sides.

Dylan Macallister bundled the ball home to break the deadlock then Rojas rifled home a second in the 72nd minute to provide a fitting result for Ricki Herbert’s 100th A-League game as coach.

More importantly, the Phoenix closed the gap on sixth-placed Melbourne Heart to one point in the race for the play-offs.

Wellington made their attacking intentions clear from the start and sparked by Rojas, they had the better of the early chances.

In the 10th minute he crossed the ball into the feet of Tim Brown but his shot was deflected over by a despairing Rodi Vargas.

While that was the Phoenix’s best chance of the opening 15 minutes, at the other end Carlos Hernandez wasted a golden opportunity for the visitors after Ricardinho, starting in place of Robbie Kruse, had broken down the right flank and dragged the ball back from the byline.

But last year’s A-League player of the year squirted his shot straight at Danny Vukovic in the Phoenix goal.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick’s patience finally ran out with his side and he dragged Marvin Angulo off in the 35th minute and replaced him with Danny Allsopp, back in Melbourne after his recent transfer from the United States’ Major League Soccer.

Rojas continued to torment Victory in the second half, before the home side eventually broke through in the 67th minute when Macallister struck.

Having set up the first, Rojas got the goal his performance deserved to double the Phoenix’s lead on 72 minutes.

The Victory had a chance to close the gap a minute later but Ricardinho shot straight at Vukovic in what turned out to be the visitors’ last throw of the dice.