Heading to Melbourne undefeated in their past four games, Phoenix produced one of the rarer sights in A-League history on Saturday evening: outplaying Victory on their home patch.

Seizing control of the ball and, in contrast with Victory, looking comfortable as they looked to build their attacks, the visiting Kiwis were only denied the three points due to a frustrating inability to make a final, killer pass or produce an individual moment of brilliance in the final third.

"I thought we dominated Victory from the first minute to the 90th minute,” ‘Nix gaffer Ufuk Talay said after the game. "I think we didn't create as many chances as we would have liked to, but I thought we were the best team tonight."

Speaking to FTBL, Talay’s skipper echoed his sentiments.

“We dominated from start to finish,” he said. “I think the boys were outstanding today.

“[It was] a massive effort: a clean sheet, wave after wave attacks against them, creating a lot of opportunities, hitting the bar a few times and it just didn’t go in.

“But I’ll tell you what, the performance – from back to front – pure domination.

“We did the exact thing we’ve been doing all season. We’ve been working to get results and we’re still dominating the game and taking the game to teams.

“We’re on the front foot, we want to get after teams and we know that the longer the games go on we become stronger. We’re fitter than every team out here. We believe in ourselves. There’s massive belief in the boys.

“Obviously for [Victory], it’s a difficult time because they’ve come off the back of a few poor results. You could feel they were a bit nervous on the ball, there was a tension around the ground.

“So, for us, we just concentrated on ourselves; Victory didn’t change what we’d been doing.

“We kept playing our football, dominating possession, moving around, finding the little pocket, getting our crosses in and Getting balls in behind. We wanted to get them moving a lot and down the sides and we killed them down there today.

“At the back, it was a very, very comfortable game. So, yeah, didn’t seem like we were going to concede. And I said to the boys, probably the most comfortable game I’ve played over here.

“We don’t feel pressure, we got out there and play. We’ve got the dog mentality all over the park. Everyone, they’re working hard, we’re not carrying anyone.

“I think this season we’re getting after teams and it’s showing on the pitch. There’s been some fantastic football. We’re very unlucky not to get three points today.”

Beyond the Nix’s performance, Saturday evening was notable to the level of spice that developed between the two sides.

A missed call when Tim Payne cleaned up Robbie Kruse on the half an hour mark served as the touchpaper for sixty minutes of football in which referee Stephen Lucas produced ten yellow cards and a straight red for Kristijan Dobras.

Taylor, though, praised the work of Lucas.

“I thought he was outstanding,” said Taylor. “I’ve got to give the referee a lot of credit. It’s sometimes difficult, you get intimidated by crowds and it’s a heavy crowd here – they can be hard on the referee.

“But he gives some to us and some against us and we take that on the chin. But I thought it was a good referee’s performance. Yeah, they’re going to feel hard done by by the red card but that happens, it’s football.”