Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory are failing to meet the high expectations held in pre-season,  dropping points against Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix respectively. Brisbane Roar, alongside Jets and the Nix, are still searching for that first win of the season.

Here is a look at five standout performances from round five of the A-League.

Craig Noone

Since arriving on Australian shores, the Englishman has been a vital cog in the Melbourne City machine and was again in their win against the Mariners on Friday night.

Although Noone didn’t get on the scoresheet like last week against Phoenix, he was still a constant threat going forward.

The relationship between himself and fullbacks Scott Jamieson and Scott Galloway has been interesting to watch as he needs to be in constant sync with them given their unique movement.

Noone, playing on the right, would often cut in when Galloway would overlap, or go down the flank if his teammate was in a more central position, with Mariners defender Jack Clisby often unsure who to follow.

With that space, Noone created a couple chances with his nifty feet but sometimes lacked the precision required to score.

Nevertheless, if he continues to play like that, there’s no doubt he will prove himself to be an excellent signing for City. No-one will be able to stop him...

Jason Hoffman

Reluctantly, Jason Hoffman might actually be a good striker. The defender-slash-forward was outstanding against Perth Glory.

Last week against Sydney, Hoffman got into excellent positions but messed up chances where it was harder to miss than score. It seems like sometime during the week he rediscovered the killer instincts required to find the back of the net.

The 30 year old made a dart down towards the middle on the edge of the box, where Steven Ugarkovic found him with an incisive through ball, where Hoffman finished with aplomb as if he’s been a striker his whole life.

After taking the lead, Hoffman’s versatility was helpful to Ernie Merrick as he put him in a more reserved position with the Jets looking to hold on, but conceded late on. Perhaps Ernie would have been better served by going for the final blow with Hoffman leading the way.

Andrew Durante

Western United clearly have a steely resilience to their side, best personified by centre-back Durante.

After Wanderers took an early lead, where heads might have dropped, Durante took control to get his team back into the game with a powerful header from an Alessandro Diamanti corner, the 37 year old’s first goal in more than five years.

In teh wake of the goal, the whole team’s confidence seemed to rise as Durante ordered the defence to stay in position, and won countless aerial battles and interceptions to keep his team from conceding again.

Markus Babbel looked like he had no answer to penetrate the United defence, largely due to the veteran defender using all his years of experience to keep Western Sydney at bay.

Perhaps German striker Alexander Meier might have been able to make it more challenging, but Babbel curiously decided to play him as a midfielder. It backfired, though, as Durante was comfortable without any serious physical presence to contest him.

Ola Toivonen

Where would Victory be without Toivonen?

The captain made up for the dubious handball that gave Wellington the lead by scoring at the other end with another brilliant piece of technique, receiving the ball off a deflection and taking a few small touches before beating Stefan Marinovic.

In his first season at Melbourne, Toivonen had the support of Keisuke Honda, James Troisi, Kosta Barbarouses and Terry Antonis to propel Victory forward. This time around, without them, Toivonen carries a far greater load but he’s shown no signs of slowing down.

The Swede was at the centre of anything good for Victory as he came deep to become playmaker or waited in the box to try finish off any chances that came his way.

Victory manager Marco Kurz is fortunate to have a player of Toivonen’s quality, but he will need to find someone to help share the burden or he will be too dependent on his captain.

James Troisi

Adelaide’s match against Brisbane Roar was the most boring match to watch of the round, so it’s ironic that the best 10 seconds of the weekend came from it too.

Troisi made an angled run in behind the Brisbane midfield and received the ball in the channel before sprinting into the box.

He exchanged a quick one-two with Nikola Mileusnic to get past the final line of defence and took a couple more touches towards goal before squaring the ball and setting it up on a plate for Riley McGree.

That flicker of quality was all it took for Adelaide to take the win facing a packed Roar defence and it showed just why Troisi is one of Australia’s most misunderstood talents. He contains that flicker of skill that can light up a game, just as he did on Sunday.

To make things even more impressive, the former Victory midfielder even played in a far deeper role than he’s accustomed to but adapted seamlessly. With the time and space provided, he was able to take more control of the match and his assist was the perfect example of that.