Football
PA Sport 9y

Melbourne Victory claim Premiers' Plate after win over Mariners

Melbourne Victory guaranteed themselves the A-League Premiers' Plate with a 3-1 home triumph over the Central Coast Mariners on the final day of the regular season.

Daniel Georgievski and Archie Thompson fired the hosts into a two-goal lead with strikes just two minutes apart shortly after the half-hour mark.

Eddy Bosnar halved the deficit with a deflected free kick on the stroke of half-time, but any hopes the visitors harboured of a comeback were quashed two minutes after the restart when Besart Berisha grabbed a third goal for the Victory.

Victory head coach Kevin Muscat said on the club's official Twitter feed: "I'm over the moon. To achieve this with that group is special. It was a massive night. It's been far too long."

He added: "We'll enjoy tonight but there's a lot of planning and preparation to go if we want to be successful in the finals."

Sydney FC had earlier given themselves a shout of winning the Premiers' Plate by moving level on 50 points with the Victory courtesy of a 2-1 success at Wellington Phoenix.

Bernie Ibini-Isei set Sydney on their way with a 14th-minute opener and Shane Smeltz doubled their advantage from the penalty spot just shy of the half-hour mark.

Michael Boxall pulled a goal back in the opening moments of the second half, but that was as good as it got for the fifth-placed Phoenix.

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