Melbourne Victory’s Ninja A-League finals hopes sit on a knife’s edge after being defeated 2-1 by Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval.
Rachel Lowe opened the scoring for Melbourne Victory, before Riley Tanner swung the momentum Sydney’s way with goals either side of half time.
Victory had all the attack early, eventually getting the breakthrough in the 23rd minute when Lowe pounced on Sydney FC returnee Charlotte McLean’s failed clearance and swerved her strike into the top corner.
Sydney FC brought scores level eight minutes later when Victory captain Kayla Morrison’s misplaced pass out of defence put Tanner clean through on goal, the Panamanian striker able to poke it past Courtney Newbon to make it 1-1.
Morrison gifted Sydney a second goal just after half time, her under-hit pass towards Claudia Bunge again sent Tanner 1-on-1 with Newbon before cooly finishing to give Sydney the lead.
Newbon and Morrison combined for a trio of blocks to keep Jodi Ülkekul from making it 3-1 just after the hour mark, leaving the American striker to keep looking for her first Ninja A-League goal.
Tempers were fraying as the match went on, with a pair of flashpoints seeing Taylor Ray, Sofia Sakalis and Tanner all booked for actions after the play was over.
The final 10 minutes saw Sydney hang on with some tight backs to the wall defending dealing with Victory’s desperate attempts to find an equaliser.
This result brings Sydney off the bottom of the table and pushes Melbourne Victory out of the top six with just one more round to play.
Sydney FC head up the road to Central Coast next Saturday to finish their season, while Melbourne Victory make the trip over to Perth on Friday night to try and get themselves back into the top six.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Melbourne Victory goal: Lowe 23′
Sydney FC goal: Tanner 31′
Sydney FC goal: Tanner 49′
