Wellington Phoenix climbed to within three points of the A-League summit by battling back from behind to beat Melbourne Victory 3-2 at AAMI Park.
Ernie Merrick's men, who have maintained their impressive record of never losing away at Victory, now find themselves level on points with their opponents in a tightly-contested race for the title.
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It was the home side who made the better start to the contest, coming close to opening the scoring inside the opening 15 minutes when Kosta Barbarouses was played through on goal, only for a good piece of defending from Alex Rodriguez to deny him.
Victory had an even better chance to edge ahead just 60 seconds later when Ben Sigmund brought down his man inside the box to concede a penalty, but Besart Berisha failed to convert from the spot, instead smashing the ball against the upright.
The Dark Blues did have a lead to show for their efforts on the 34-minute mark, however, when Scott Galloway's shot found its way through to the back of the net.
Wellington levelled prior to the interval thanks to a fine free kick from Roly Bonevacia, who lofted the ball up and over the wall and beyond the reach of Nathan Coe.
Three more goals followed in an entertaining second half, with the first falling the way of Barbarouses, who made amends for his earlier penalty miss by tucking away an opening into the bottom corner.
The Nix bounced back well, though, as Michael Boxall managed to get onto the end of Bonevacia's free kick and head the ball home, before Nathan Burns turned the game on its head less than 10 minutes later when he smartly converted after being played through one-on-one.
That proved to be the end of the scoring, as the division's top scorers failed to find an equaliser.
Daniel Lewis
