Bernie Ibini was the hero for Sydney when he placed his team in front after being on the pitch for five minutes after the hour mark.

The visitors had to overcome a goal deficit as the Victory drew first blood courtesy of James Troisi in the 18th minute, but Filip Holosko equalised 20 minutes later.

The night went from bad to worse when James Donachie was given his marching orders for a dangerous tackle on Alex Brosque with 19 minutes remaining.

Victory will look back on where it all went wrong as they began the game in flying colours. Fahid Ben Khalfallah had a blistering run on the left and his final cross found Marco Rojas who set up Troisi, hitting the ball first time with his right foot which left Vukovic stranded.

Minutes later an ambitious volley by Rojas from distance almost caught Vukovic out but he managed to catch the flying ball.

The Kiwi would continue to wreak havoc as Ben Khalfallah’s ball found him in the box once again, who turned Michael Zullo inside-out only for Vukovic to palm the final shot away.

The Sky Blues started to create clear-cut chances before the break, Lawrence Thomas had a double save, the first from Bobo and the follow-up from Zullo was parried for a corner.

It did not matter as Holosko equalised seconds later, the Slovakian only had Milos Ninkovic to thank for a precision cross.

But the Victory did not sit back in the second half, despite Sydney getting on the front foot early. Ben  Khalfallah hit the crossbar before the hour mark.

Ibini would steal the show, after Brosque headed a long ball on. He proceeded to beat Alan Baro and two other defenders to smash the ball in the back of the net.

There was late drama when Rojas tackled Zullo, it resulted in the Socceroo tugging the Kiwi on the head, which resulted in Troisi retaliating. It then resulted in a yellow card for both players.

And Sydney would hold on to now be four games in front of the table and will take on Brisbane Roar away next Friday.

Victory remain at Etihad Stadium for the derby, they remain second on the table, who lead third-placed Melbourne City by six points.

Melbourne Victory: 20. THOMAS Lawrence, 2. GERIA Jason (88’ 16. MAHAZI Rahid), 6. BROXHAM Leigh, 7. ROJAS Marco, 8. BERISHA Besart, 10. TROISI James, 13. BOZANIC Ollie (74’ 5. GEORGIEVSKI Daniel), 14. BEN KHALFALLAH Fahid (66’ 23. INGHAM Jai), 15. BARO Alan, 17. DONACHIE James, 21. VALERI Carl

Sydney FC: 20. VUKOVIC Danny, 4. WILKINSON Alex, 5. BUIJS Jordy, 6. BRILLANTE Josh, 7. ZULLO Michael, 9. BOBO (79’ 18. SIMON Matt), 10. NINKOVIC Milos, 12. CALVER Aaron (84’ 8. DIMITRIJEVIC Milos), 13. O’NEILL Brandon, 14. BROSQUE Alex, 21. HOLOSKO Filip (61’ 11. IBINI Bernie)

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Crowd: 32062