Mariners demolish Fury, Victory do it again 

Source: GettyCentral Coast Mariners celebrate

The Central Coast Mariners have handed out their second demolition in two rounds by thumping the North Queensland Fury 5-1 at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.

After their 4-0 demolition of Melbourne Victory last round, the Mariners continued their no-mercy tactics with goals to Pedj Bojic, Ahmad Elrich, John Hutchinson and a double from Nik Mrdja to leave them in a position to take top position on the A-League ladder.

The first opportunity of the game came in the second minute when North Queensland's Robbie Middleby got a cross into Fred Agius whose shot drifted over the crossbar.

Central Coast hit back and gained a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute with a long ball from Dean Heffernan being brilliantly controlled by Pedj Bojic who got a shot away that could not be saved by goalkeeper Paul Henderson.

A free kick from a foul by Malik was taken just outside the 18 yard box by Nik Mrdja whose shot slide past a diving Henderson to hit the back of the net and give the Mariners a 2-0 lead after 35 minutes.

The Fury came into the opening minutes of the second half looking to lessen Central Coasts lead with a through ball from Malik finding David Williams' feet who got a shot away that went straight to Mariners goal keeper Danny Vukovic.

Mrdja added another goal to his tally for the night after receiving a ball from Bojic and getting a low swift shot into the back of the net for Central Coast's lead to stretch out to 3-0 in the 59th minute.

The demolition continued shortly after when in the 62nd minute an accurate header from Bojic found Ahmad Elrich who scored to give the Mariners a lead of 4-0.

Looking to at least get on the scoreboard, the Fury's David Williams got a ball away that was tapped into the back of the net by Rostyn Griffiths in the 67th minute.

John Hutchinson scored a goal in the 81st minute to extend Central Coast's lead to 5-1.

Melbourne do it again

Meanwhile in the nights other clash Archie Thompson's diving header continued Melbourne's amazing A-League road record and also their Suncorp dominance over Brisbane Roar with a 1-0 win.

Thompson found the net in the eighth minute after teammate Robbie Kruse was the victim of an aggressive tackle.

Brisbane had several chances to equalise and had good reason to feel upset when replacement Josh McCloughan's header off a bullseye corner from Ivan Franjic appeared to level the scores in the 74th minute.

However their celebrations and those of most of the 9,904 fans were short-lived with referee Ben Williams waving the goal away.

Williams ruled Roar defender Craig Moore had impeded Victory goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak's efforts to get out to the ball in the mad scramble in front of goals.

Melbourne went on full scale defence in the second half.

At times Thompson was their only player up forward as they threw a wall at Brisbane.

Roar coach Ange Postecoglou made a double substitution at half time in a bid to find more pace out wide, injecting youngster Tommy Oar on the left for veteran Danny Tiatto and Henrique, who livened things up on the right, replacing Mitch Nichols who struggled out of position in the first half.

Henrique, who had a great chance to square the ledger on a solo burst in the 79th minute, was given a red card by Williams for a deliberate handball in the 88th minute.

It was Melbourne's sixth win on the road from seven games and just the response coach Ernie Merrick would have wanted after they were humbled 4-0 at home by Central Coast.

With Melbourne content to shut up shop in the second half, Brisbane finished with 11 shots at goal to four by the visitors and also dominated possession.