Victory stunned the home side with an early goal, remained composed as a trademark slugfest unfolded before Grant Brebner made sure of the result with an opportunist score from close range in the 89th minute.

The result extends the Victory's winning sequence against the Reds to seven matches and sees them move through the mid-table logjam and into fourth spot.

United never looked in the hunt but will be rueing a raft of missed opportunities and at times sloppy play.

Melbourne Victory took the lead in the sixth minute when Nick Ward caught Eugene Galekovic off guard.

Streaming down the right side, Ward centred the ball from a tight angle and squeezed the ball past the Reds goalkeeper who failed to cover the front post.

It was a tense and fierce contest for most of the second half but a desperate Adelaide opened up a second opportunity for Melbourne by a keeping a seemingly harmless ball in play.

A fleet-footed Archie Thompson knocked the ball into the teeth of goal and after some frantic moments Brebner knocked it home from close range.

Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick was pleased his team played the game out until the final whistle.

"I'd just like to play like that every week, we've said we haven't been playing for 90 minutes and we haven't been playing with our normal intensity," he said.

"It was just terrific to see the boys play out that 93 minutes with full intensity right to the end."

Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar would not concede Melbourne Victory had a 'mental edge' over his team despite suffering another loss to the club's greatest rival.

"It's a new season and a new game and we've come short again so I'm not going to buy into that. I think tonight the first goal caught everyone by surprise, the second one we gave away right at the death," Vidmar said.

"I was happy with the effort. There was a lot of huffing and puffing but we couldn't blow the house down tonight."

After scoring the early goal, Melbourne was a dangerous, attacking force with its crisp and decisive possession around the box causing plenty of concerns for United's defence.

Tom Pondeljak was just off target with his back heel at the ninth minute while he and Thompson both tried to chip the ball over the top of the keeper half an hour into the contest.

And the visitors weren't afraid to get physical with captain Kevin Muscat and Leigh Broxham picking up yellow cards for poor tackles.

Adelaide struggled for touch but threatened to find the equaliser with four probing corners and some dipping free kicks from Scott Jamieson.

At the 40th minute Iain Fyfe was caught in two minds and failed to pull the trigger from inside the box while an Adam Hughes lacked penetration with his header closing in half time - both plays epitomizing the frustrating session of play for the home side.

It was a similar story for the Reds during the early stages of the second half with Lloyd Owusu missing a couple of 'half' chances.

Melbourne's approach wasn't as urgent but it also had chances to make an impact - Hernandez and Ward had shots on goal while at the 77th minute Thompson's shot was flicked over the crossbar.