Brisbane Roar Youth have hammered Melbourne Victory Youth 4-0 with a comprehensive display at John Cain Memorial Park on Sunday.
Goals from Kenneth Dougall, Matthew Thurtell and late strikes from Daniel Bowles and James Donachie gave the Roar their seventh win from 14 games.
The win sees Brisbane move up to second on the National Youth League ladder ahead of Sydney, with their result against league-leaders Gold Coast pending.
Regardless, Brisbane have two games in hand over Sydney while Melbourne remain in sixth with games in hand on most of their rivals.
Alistair Quinn was superb for the visitors as the Roar shared the workload in an even team performance.
Melbourne almost took an unexpected lead early on when Luke O’Dea finished sweetly after a sweeping move.
Roar skipper Dane Milovanovic was caught napping at the back but despite Damir Lokvancic’s incisive pass and O’Dea’s sweet finish, Victory were called for off-side.
But aside from that early opening, it was Brisbane that dominated proceedings thereafter.
Quinn was marshalling the midfield with his positioning and pin-point passing, and it wasn’t long before the Roar unlocked Victory’s defence.
Though Victory ‘keeper Sebastian Mattei was largely at fault for Dougall’s long-range strike slipping through the gate, the shot did take a horrible bobble and was moving at pace.
There was an element of good fortune for Dougall, but he found plenty of space on the edge of the area to give Brisbane a lead they thoroughly deserved 16 minutes in.
Just a moment later Joshua McVey tried his luck from even further out. His blistering drive stung the palms of Mattei, who almost made a horrible mess of the save as the ball trickled towards the goal line, but he managed to gather and save face as Victory raced up the other end for their best chance of the half.
O’Dea was played through again by Christopher Cristaldo but when bodied by Milovanovic he could only shoot straight at the ‘keeper.
Roar continued to play and find plenty of space in behind Victory’s high defensive line.
At the other end, Melbourne couldn’t find enough players to join the attack and only inches prevented them going into the half two down following Joshua Groenewald’s fine left-footed effort.
Soon after the break Brisbane had a second.
Substitute Thurtell bulldozed his way through a group of players on the edge of the box and found the net in rather scrappy fashion.
From then on, with the home side dejected, it seemed a comeback was highly unlikely.
On 68 minutes Donachie spurned a great chance to make it three for the Roar. The ball sat for him six yards out but he blasted his shot just wide.
Not long after and Lokvancic headed onto the bar for Victory with what was a glorious chance to make the last twenty minutes interesting.
But as Melbourne pressed their defence was picked apart by the Roar. A corner from Dougall found defender Bowles whose side scissor-kick volley was impeccably put away on 88 minutes to make it 3-0.
Donachie found space down the right channel two minutes later to clip the ball over Mattei and complete the rout for Brisbane.
Melbourne Victory: 0
Brisbane Roar: 4 (Dougall 16, Thurtell 51, Bowles 88, Donachie 90)
