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Hero ... Andrew Nabbout (C) celebrates with Melbourne Victory fans after their comeback win. Source:AAP
Melbourne Victory heaped more pain on Sydney FC, coming from two goals down to score a thrilling 3-2 A-League win on Saturday night.
Eager to put last week's horror 7-2 thrashing by Central Coast behind them, the Sky Blues looked set to post a much-needed win after taking a 2-0 lead in front of 21,531 fans at Allianz Stadium.
But two goals by impressive teenage substitute Andrew Nabbout and another by Archie Thompson inside the last 12 minutes gave Ange Postecoglou's side a memorable win.
The Victory had dominated possession for most of the match but the Sky Blues looked set to profit from making the most of their chances.
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adelaide | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| 2 | Newcastle | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 3 | Central Coast | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| 4 | Perth | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| 5 | Victory | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | -4 | 9 |
| 6 | Heart | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| 7 | Western Sydney | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 7 |
| 8 | Sydney | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -7 | 6 |
| 9 | Wellington | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 5 |
| 10 | Brisbane | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -1 | 4 |
An early goal to impressive Panamanian striker Yairo Yau and Dutch defender Pascal Bosschaart's first ever professional goal in the second half looked to have them on course for three competition points.
Sydney welcomed back star signing Alessandro Del Piero after he sat out the loss to the Mariners with a hamstring complaint, and Italian delivered a classy performance before being substituted in the 66th minute - a decision Sky Blues coach Ian Crook may regret in hindsight.
With Bosschaart and Fabio back from injury too, Crook also promoted Blake Powell to the starting line-up and the home side looked determined from the outset.
It didn't take them long to capitalise, with Yau opening the scoring for the second straight week.
Del Piero played Powell into space and the 21-year-old youngster did brilliantly in cutting the ball back to set up Yau for a simple tap-in.
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Victory captain Adrian Leijer and Sydney's Seb Ryall were forced off the field midway through the first half after a sickening head clash but were both able to continue after some treatment and heavy bandaging.
The visitors grew into the game throughout the first half, with only a brilliant 44th-minute save by Ivan Necevski preserving Sydney's 1-0 lead at halftime.
Melbourne appeared to start the second half with purpose but Sydney doubled their advantage against the run of play in the 48th minute.
Some more Del Piero trickery led to a Sky Blues corner and, after the Victory failed to clear, Bosschaart struck a sweet first-time volley that Necevski failed stop.
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It was the 32-year-old's first goal in almost 400 games played in the Netherlands and Australia.
Victory almost pulled one back in the 56th minute with Necevski's fingertip save denying Marco Rojas from close range.
Teenager Nabbout gave the visitors hope with a brilliant curling finish to set up a nail-biting finish and the home crowd were stunned as the Victory came home like a train.
Thompson struck with a header in the 86th minute to level the scores before Nabbout capped a spectacular performance off the bench with the winner, a pin-point header from Gui Finkler's corner in stoppage time.
Crook was involved in a heated argument with a group of fans after the match, who criticised him for the substitutions of Del Piero and Yau while Sydney were up 2-0.
But the coach defended the decisions, saying the pair were underdone and had to come off, believing Sydney simply ran out of legs.
Del Piero trained only once this week and Crook said the plan was originally to bring him off at halftime.
Asked about the post-match incident, Crook played it down, saying the fans were "just having a go at me for bringing them (the players) off.''
"It's nothing, that's the way it is,'' Crook said.
"For me, I'd defend the boys all day long. They (fans) obviously see Yairo come off and Alessandro come off ... but people don't know the situations that come before that and the reasons they are coming off.
"How they even played the game was a credit to them.''
Crook said Sydney would keep believing in what they were doing but accepted he was under pressure personally after the losses.
"You lose at this club and straight away people start to question it and that's part of it,'' Crook said.
Postecolgou hailed the impact of Nabbout, plucked from the youth team earlier this season, and believed the Victory deserved the result.
"I was pleased with the whole 90 minutes and think that's the best 90 minutes we've put together,'' the coach said.
