Perhaps the biggest upset of the season so far was the demolition of table-topping Gold Coast United by the lesser-favoured Central Coast Mariners in Gosford on Saturday night.  In the aptly named "Battle of the Coasts", Miron Bleiberg's men ventured south to Bluetongue Stadium in the hope of an easy three points.

The Gosford outfit, however, were clearly reading from a different script.

Over the course of 90 minutes Central Coast scored three unanswered goals, and in doing so handed the visitors their heaviest defeat in the club's history.

The Mariners, now cemented in third spot and within striking range of the competition leaders, can boast the best defence in the league after the first seven rounds, conceding only four goals so far.

After comprehensively beating reigning champions Melbourne Victory in round one, coupled with this performance, Central Coast may well be establishing themselves as the giant-killers of the competition.

Elsewhere Melbourne welcomed back their talisman captain, Kevin Muscat, without whom they had a torrid time trying to achieve a result.  In true 'Musky' style, the hard-hitting centre back hassled and harranged the Adelaide attack and helped his team to a deserved win and, almost as importantly, a clean sheet.

Sydney and Perth picked up three points against Newcastle and Brisbane respectively, moving both teams towards the summit of the competition.

And finally, the tried and tested adage that football is a 90 minute game, in this case 95 minutes, once again rang true in the New Zealand capital as Wellington found themselves with little recompense after dominating their match with North Queensland Fury.

Despite extending their unbeaten home record to nine games, Phoenix were left to wonder what might have been after squandering  a one-goal lead late in the game.

What is perhaps more disappointing, and somewhat disturbing, for the Yellow Fever legions is that this seems to be becoming a trend for their team who have failed to claim all three points in recent weeks.

Football indeed is a peculiar mistress.

Round seven exploded out of the gates on Friday with a mouth-watering matchup between arch rivals Adelaide united and Melbourne Victory. Melbourne, along with droves of loyal supporters, made the trip west to Hindmarsh stadium, for a clash that Coach Ernie Merrick said during the week was a must win.

Merrick's intent was reflected in his team's early raids, with the Victory streaming forward in numbers throughout the opening interchanges. It was a bizarre goal, however, gave the visitors the lead in the 6th minute. In one of Melbourne's most promising moves, flying winger Nicky Ward netted from a cross-cum-shot that slipped past the Reds' goalkeeper.

The goal silenced the home crowd, who really had little to cheer about in the first half.

In a rare opportunity Adelaide defender Iain Fyfe found himself up the other end of the park in the 40th minute but failed to pull the trigger from inside the box, while Adam Hughes lacked penetration with his header closing in half-time.

Victory continued to stifle the Adelaide attack in the second half, though the home side seemed to be playing with conviction after a half-time talk from their coach. It was all to come to nothing for Adelaide, however, when Archie Thompson robbed Cassio of the ball late in the dying stages and teed up substitute Grant Brebner to seal the 2-0 win.

Saturday night saw Lawrie McKinna notch a century of A-League matches as boss of Central Coast Mariners against Gold Coast United. After a disappointing display against Adelaide in the previous round, the Mariners were determined to get a result against heavily-favoured opponents.

The home side were rewarded with Nicky Travis breaking the deadlock midway through the first half after a through-ball by Matt Simon. It was Travis' first A-League goal.

Simon was at the forefront of most of the Mariners attack, and it was the lanky forward who doubled his side's advantage when he fending off several defenders to unleash a powerful long-range from outside the penalty area.

Any hope of a Gold Coast comeback was ruined with the dismissal of Shane Smeltz for a second caution on 68 minutes, thus ending the Kiwi striker's dream start to the campaign that had seen him net nine goals in six previous matches.

Two minutes later John Hutchinson capped a solid showing in the centre of the park with a fine goal, bursting into the box after being fed by Michael McGlinchey.

Both Wellington Phoenix and North Queensland Fury had been written off by the bookmakers before the season started but both teams were determined to put that to bed when they met on a perfect day in the New Zealand capital.

Phoenix led for most of the game thanks to a sixth minute effort from Leo Bertos, but in reality could have had a more comfortable buffer if not for poor finishing and wasted chances, not to mention some expert goalkeeping by Fury custodian Paul Henderson.

Paul Ifill was again the pick of the Phoenix and although the big forward did not get on the score sheet his high work-rate meant he was a constant threat for the North Queenslanders. 
Indeed, it was Ifill who expertly set up the goal for Bertos, and the import created most of the chances for the home side.

Robbie Fowler found the back of the net for the visitors in the 78th minute after Chris Grossman dragged the ball across the face of goal, but an offside ruling cut the celebrations short.

Fury continued to press hard for the equaliser and it came just seconds from fulltime after a Fowler free-kick Fowler ricocheted around the box before falling at Grossman's feet who made no mistake from close range.

In the second match of a three-game matchday Sunday, Sydney FC welcomed Newcastle Jets, under the guidance of former blues boss Branko Culina, to the SFS.

The game then exploded into action, the Jets controversially awarded a penalty after Stuart Musialik was harshly ruled to have given Fabio Vignaroli's shirt a tug inside the box on 22 minutes. Matt Thompson failed to take advantage of his side's good fortune, and hit his spot kick meekly along the ground for Bolton to comfortably smother.

It was the home side who found themselves in front on 26 minutes after an inspired run and class finish by striker Mark Bridge.

The lead was short-lived, however, as eleven minutes later Matt Thompson made amends for his earlier miss thanks to some lovely lead-up from Kaz Patafta.

The ex-Victory midfielder out-tricked Sydney fullback Byun to work himself into the box before driving a left-foot shot that Bolton could only parry into Thompson's path at the back post.

The Jets captain completed the tap in to equal at 1-1.

The action continued in the second half when Newcastle keeper Ben Kennedy bought down Alex Brosque in the 55th minute.

The Jets custodian was shown a yellow card and was easily beaten by Corica from the spot despite guessing the right way.

Newcastle refused to lie down and were unlucky not to equalise in the 71st minute, Jin-Hyung Song's curling effort smacking against the crossbar but Sydney held on for the win at home in front of just over 10,000 people.

The round was closed off in an action-packed see-sawing match between Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory at Suncorp Stadium.

Brisbane's search for a convincing home win was off to inauspicious start when Josh McCloughan turned a Glory ball into his own net within the first 60 seconds. Wayne Srhoj cleverly clipped a ball over Liam Reddy on 41 minutes after finding himself one-on-one with the Brisbane goalkeeper.

Roar, who created a handful of chances in the first half, continued to press early in the second and Brazilian flyer Henrique opened his side's account in the 50th minute, dancing past Glory defender Andy Todd before beating keeper Aleks Vrteski with a scorching shot.

Glory striker Branko Jelic was on hand 20 minutes later  to re-establish the visitor's two goal lead after some good lead-up play by marquee man Mile Sterjovski.

Though Brisbane would pull a goal back through Sergio Van Dijk just minutes later, their cause was crushed in the 76th minute when Reddy mishandled a cross under heavy pressure by Chris Coyne to secure the Perth victory.

The win was Perth's first triumph away from Members Equity Stadium since 21 December 2008, and snapped a horror run that had seen them beaten by the Roar in 10 of the last 11 clashes between the two sides, a record dating back to the league's inception in 2005.