Roly Bonevacia stunned the home crowd with a first half brace (9', 26') before Victory suffered another blow when last man Alan Baro was shown a straight red for taking out Kosta Barbarouses on the edge of the box (72').

Substitute Shane Smeltz then completed the rout with a tap-in (89') to end a woeful night for the home side.

But the news was not all good for Wellington, as Matthew Ridenton landed awkwardly and was substituted off for Dylan Fox with a suspected ACL injury (17').

The result sees Victory remain in second on the A-League table while Phoenix, in 7th, move within four points of 6th-placed Perth Glory with two games remaining.

Gallery: Victory v Phoenix pic special

Ridenton suffers suspected ACL

Victory were left to rue their missed opportunities as Besart Berisha who fail to take advantage of a Marco Rojas cross.

Minutes later it was former Victory man Gui Finkler who teed up Bonevacia, the striker given far too much space as his shot from distance glided past goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas for the opener.

Victory continued to look shaky in the first half as James Donachie nearly gifted Barbarouses a goal only for Thomas to save his blushes.

Barbarouses and Roy Krishna continued to look deadly nonetheless, as the Kiwi's ball looked good to the Fijian but was fired over the crossbar on the 20 minute mark.

Soon after Bonevacia claimed his second - an improbable goal from outside the box which pinballed off both uprights before nestling into the back of the net.

It was a half to forget for Victory with Jason Geria making a series of mistakes.

After the break, the home side looked more composed as they rallied to pull back the deficit, despite having no shots in anger early, Rojas had a free kick where he elected to shoot instead of cross and the ball flew over the crossbar.

Wellington scrambled well in defence to contain Victory and despite looking the more likely the night went from bad to worse when lBaro was given his marching orders with just 18 minutes remaining.

Phoenix looked for the dagger blow s goalin the final 10 minutes as Krishna had a one-on-one with Thomas but sprayed his effort wide off a Shane Smeltz through ball.

A minute later Barbarouses tried to take advantage of a Donachie error but he took a heavy touch which was claimed by Thomas.

Smeltz finally made it three for the visitors after Tom Doyle got in behind the defence, teeing the Kiwi up for an easy finish.

Victory travel to take on the Western Sydney Wanderers next week who need to win to keep themselves in the finals race. And the Nix take on the table-toppers Sydney FC at home on the same night.

Melbourne Victory: THOMAS, Lawrence, 2. GERIA Jason (76’ 4. ANSELL Nick), 5. GEORGIEVSKI Daniel, 6. BROXHAM Leigh, 7. ROJAS Marco, 8. BERISHA Besart, 10. TROISI James, 14. BEN KHALALLAH (68’ 23. INGHAM Jai), 15. BARO Alan, 21. VALERI Carl, 17. DONACHIE James

20. ITALIANO Lewis, 4. BONEVACIA Roly, 7. FINKLER Gui (69’ 99. SMELTZ Shane), 8. RODRIGUEZ Alex (79’ 10. MCGLINCHEY Michael), 9. BARBAROUSES Kosta, 13. ROSSI Marco, 17. LIA Vince, 19. DOYLE Thomas, 21. KRISHNA Roy (17’ 6. FOX Dylan), 22. DURANTE Andrew, 23. RIDENTON Matt (17’ 6. FOX Dylan)