It was a beautiful afternoon at a packed Jubilee Stadium. The football wasn’t quite as pretty.

Sydney were really well organised and Victory couldn’t handle the high press. In the first 20 minutes just about every Victory player missed a pass or nine.

Both headlining strikers scored in the first half, although neither goal will adorn a highlights reel. In fact, Sydney were very lucky to be given a soft penalty.

The second half was mostly more of the same until Leigh Broxham and Keisuke Honda combined to break the deadlock.

Sydney FC

Andrew Redmayne - 5.5

Didn’t have much to do for most of the night. He faced Honda’s penalty with an unorthodox technique that didn’t pay off. He gets marked down half a point for the indignity of his effort.

Rhyan Grant - 6

The man, the myth, the mullet. Cheered on by wig wearing fans, he made a good return from Socceroos duty without really standing out. Could have headed in a goal after a good back post run. He wanted a lot more from tonight’s game and the frustration got to him.

Alex Wilkinson - 6

Did his best to deal with Toivonan but the big Swede won most duels. Wilkinson seemed to win the more important ones though.

Jop van der Linden - 6

In what was often a scrappy game, he was very tidy, until he got sucked into that foul by the cunning Keisuke Honda.

Michael Zullo - 6.5

An often unsung part of the Sydney formation. He was excellent tonight. Especially defensively, Victory play quite narrow and this can create problems for opposition fullbacks as the Central Coast found out.

Paulo Retre - 7.5

Showed us some delightful party tricks today. He was involved in most of Sydney’s best plays. He’s having an excellent season so far.

Brandon O’Neill - 6

If the rumours of overseas interest are true it’ll be thoroughly deserved. He’s put together a few consistently good seasons now. He was mostly his assured self tonight but he fluffed a couple of passes.

Joshua Brillante - 6

O’Neill’s midfield twin was up against it tonight with Honda and Antonis both in great form but the Sydney defensive midfielder's forced the Victory midfield into possibly it’s quietest game of the season so far.

Milos Ninkovic - 7

So many deft touches in and around the box but his team mates just weren’t quite there. He really is on another level at times.

Alex Brosque - 5.5

Put in a fair bit of hustle and bustle with little reward.

Adam Le Fondre - 6

Tonight was a tale of two strikers, Alf here likes to get in behind while Toivonan at the other end likes to drop. Out of the two players Toivonan looked the more dangerous tonight. But not by much. And as far as danger goes, both were probably about as dangerous as a night out in Melbourne, it’s all about who you talk to.

SUBS:

Charles Lokolingoy - 5

Coaches don’t make subs because they enjoy seeing the neon lights on the ref’s board. At least they shouldn’t. Lokolingoy needed to come on and change the game, that’s why coaches make subs but he didn’t have enough of an impact. He could have with his first touches but he decided to go back and be conservative.

Daniel De Silva - 5

Another player who came on and played a bit too conservatively.

Aaron Calver - 6

He actually had a bit of an impact on the game. He tried to make things happen and the Victory defence struggled with his pace.

Melbourne Victory

Lawrence Thomas - 6

Saved the penalty but not quite well enough. He really didn’t have much else to do tonight.

Storm Roux - 6.5

Looked good down the right yet again. Is it too late to annex New Zealand and get some of these players into the Socceroos?

Thomas Deng - 6.5

Le Fondre was mostly anonymous because of the good work of Deng and Niedermeier. Deng was able to shrug off an awful head knock too.

Georg Niedermeier - 6

Does this man have a target on his head. If he can remember making it, he probably regrets his decision to come play in Australia. He was having a good game until his second concussion of the season forced him off the pitch.

Corey Brown - 6

He was a calming presence down the left but he didn’t create as much as he has in the last few games.

Carl Valeri - 6

Solid performance from the veteran.

Terry Antonis - 6

He was perhaps the only Victory player to have a tidy first half. He unlocked the Sydney high press to open things up for Victory’s first goal. He should feel very hard done by for the penalty. He wasn’t given the chance to replicate his redeemer heroics tonight, Muscat subbed him after an hour.  

Keisuke Honda - 6.5

Was having a quiet game until his excellent work first won and then converted a penalty. He rarely loses the ball but he did miss a couple of passes tonight.  

James Troisi - 7

So far Troisi is having a very good season. He helped create Victory’s first goal. It should go down as an assist but Barbarouses might have got a tiny touch. More performances like this and he’ll deserve to be considered for the Green and Gold again.

Kosta Barbarouses - 5

A quiet performance from this kiwi tonight. He actually looked a little more dangerous when he Toivonen came off.

Ola Toivonen - 6

The big Swede just needed one chance to open the scoring. He’s a very imposing figure up front, he won a lot of headers but few came to anything. Victory used his strengths well at times and as they play together more the combinations should improve.

SUBS:

Raul Baena - 5

Did well off the bench without having too much of an impact.

Leigh Broxham - 8

Now this is a substitute! Came on and provided an amazing ball that helped win his team the game. Excellent work.

Nick Ansell - N/A

Not on for very long. Same can often be said of the products that share his name but without him there, disaster.