Melbourne Victory's defence of the A-League title is officially over despite an emphatic 3-0 win over Wellington Phoenix on Friday night.

Newcastle's 2-1 win over Central Coast this evening (Saturday) has locked out Melbourne with one round of the home and away season remaining.

While this moment has been coming for some time, Melbourne did its best to tease us that an unlikely comeback to make the finals was possible.

Friday night's performance went some way to having fans believing the team could even make an impact in the finals should they make it. Now it is simply a piece of good form before the side's first foray into the Asian Champions League.

It was somewhat typical that the major issues plaguing the Victory's season were resolved in the 3-0 over Wellington.

Kaz Patafta got decent game time. He scored.

The Allsopp-Thompson partnership was broken up front in Allsopp's absence and the team was versatille and creative. Archie Thompson helped himself to a couple of misses of the season but that has been the story of his year.

The maligned signings - Hernandez and Kemp - held their own. Hernandez was creative and also found the net, while Kemp was able to back-track and defend effectively.

But the big positive for me was to see the main fan group "Blue and White Brigade" back on level one, the ground level, of Telstra Dome.

The season has been plagued by poor relations between the fans themselves, the club's administration and Telstra Dome. My boss and I frequently argue the toss over the impact a crowd makes on the actual on-field performance of the team, but the proof is in the pudding when Melbourne's most emphatic home win of the year came with the crowed back on level one, and 25,000 people sounding like 40,000.

The fans on Melbournevictory.net are saying the ball is back in Telstra Dome's court. Whether the plan is to try and allow standing on level three, or again attempt to engage the ALL the fans, BWB or not, to involve themselves in active support on level one, I feel the burden falls on the fans.

Fan culture for football is still foreign to Australian administrators. In our society of insurance and liability it is very hard to install a flexible stadium policy that can allow active support. In an ideal world it will be level one that jumps and chants as it did on Friday night. Whether or not we'll see it in EVERY home game next year is up in the air.

Until then, let's hope the world-class fitness facility where the Victory train can prepare the team well for the Asian Champions League.

Melbourne crashed to a 4-1 defeat in Adelaide tonight despite having a period of dominance at only 2-1 down early in the second half.

Adelaide proved far too strong in the end however, you can read the full match report here.

Travis Dodd, no stranger to scoring against Melbourne was the tormentor-in-chief with a double.

Melbourne fans will be far more focused on their own team, frustratingly bad through the midfield with Carlos Hernandez particularly lacklustre.

Ernie Merrick rang the changes from the bench but Adrian Caceres and Daniel Vasilevski proved ineffective while Kaz Patafta's small stature is proving a serious hurdle to him having an impact in this league.

Sound negative? It's just a product of the high standards Melbourne fans seem to be setting. After a frustrating opening five games of the year (all draws) it looked as though Melbourne had turned the corner with two straight wins.

Now the team must re-focus on consolidating its spot in the top four after this wake-up call defeat.

If it's any consolation Archie Thompson did take his one chance for the match well with a neat finish, but Melbourne just couldn't produce attacking chances.

After a reasonable game last week Matthew Kemp put in the proverbial 'mare against his former club, his night getting off to a bad start with a nasty challenge and then second foul earning a yellow card within three minutes.

Victory is likely to take a hit from this defeat and a home fixture against Perth next week is a double-edged sword.

On one hand, Victory will be facing the least talented and cohesive unit in the A-League.

But that will only raise expectations of a win - and Perth are notorious for closing Melbourne down regardless of the defenders at its disposal.

Until next time, come on Melbourne.

Wellington Phoenix 2-2 Melbourne Victory - official A-League report.

So Melbourne led 2-0 and blew it this afternoon and were ultimately lucky not to lose the game. With a myridad of chances through the first half, most of them falling to Danny Allsopp, Melbourne could have had the game done and dusted.

 There are plenty of things to be worried about but to be perfectly honest I'm not devastated that we didn't win. In the big picture the Wellington Phoenix had to give their fanbase something in their first game as an A-League franchise and more than 14 000 fans saw a draw this afternoon. On the hour mark the Phoenix had missed a penalty and were trailing 2-0, their side showed plenty to get back in the game.

Melbourne's biggest worry right now is an injury to Ljubo Milicevic that forced him from the field in the first half. Up front it's just a matter of tuning, if we create this many chances in round 6 or round 12 we'll score a hatful, no question. Some fans are rather cruelly suggesting that our new recruit Carlos Hernandez should swim home to get fit...all i can say to that is to trust in our fitness staff and not get on his back just yet, heh.

There's no cause for panic and who knows, as the season goes on maybe a point from the New Zealand trip will be a good result for the other A-League teams.

You can see the goals by going to the 'video' feature on www.foxsports.com.au

Carlos Hernandez is the attacking midfielder new to the Melbourne Victory this season. It's hard to believe Melbourne could sign a player who is in the prime years of his career and made two appearances at the 2006 World Cup with Costa Rica but then again, it's hard to believe he would sit in the Costa Rican league until now.

Here's a link to his long-range goal in a pre-season match against Perth Glory at the weekend, the game was in Darwin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXZk2pMbrhA

If he's fit and firing I can't see him avoiding exposure to europe or the MLS/Mexican league. Like all Victory fans here's hoping he is honourable to his two year contract.

Full name: Carlos Hernández Valverde

Born: April 9, 1982 in La Pastora, Costa Rica

Former clubs: Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (Costa Rica)

Nickname: "Zorro" or "el Zorro"