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 Victory will not lift the A-League title this season. The Victory suffered a disastrous 3-1 loss to Perth Glory tonight and without some first-half heroics from Michael Theoklitos it could easily have been more.

To the untrained eye the team is six points adrift of a finals berth with six games to go and a crack at every remaining top four team in the run home.

However, the team's form is telling everyone that Melbourne is not even close to the team it once was and astoundingly in a season where the standard has dropped in this competition Melbourne has been the worst offender.

It's hard not to have seen this coming. The bottom line is most fans - myself included - simply assumed Carlos Hernandez would replace Fred and our strikers would remain prolific. Manager Ernie Merrick was largely forgiven for our loose tactics and team selections not supported by fans because the team was winning. However now it's just a complete mess with the fans eating their own and the club in constant damage control.

The solution? To avoid humiliation in the Asian Champions League the Victory must appoint a new manager. Will this happen? Of course not (or at least I am 99% sure it won't)  because sticking with Merrick through the hard times has rewarded the club once before. Another problem is there is no obvious successor for Merrick. Throughout season one it was Frank Farina who was dubbed as the man-in-waiting. Now names like Graham Arnold - the failed Australia Asian Cup manager - and "old football" Ange Postecoglu are the best fans can offer.

However our Asian preparations will be severely compromised by missing the A-League finals and an additional month of no competitive football.

The fans are understandably furious with just about everything. Team selections are the biggest area of concern. What of the "injured" Ljubo Milicevic? Will Kaz "the next Harry Kewell" Patafta ever get decent game time? How on earth is Matthew Kemp getting a game given he is at fault for goals or near-misses week-in week-out?

Until next time, try to enjoy your football.

Despite Queensland Roar leaving the door open right up to a chance in the 94th minute Melbourne failed to take its chances and fell to a 1-0 loss at Sunscorp stadium tonight.

If results go against Melbourne in the other three A-League matches this weekend then the Victory will be a full game out of the top four - a situation the team found itself in around this time in season one when it emphatically failed to rise to the challenge.

 Tonight was a frustrating affair as Queensland dominated in the first half and managed to weather the Victory's best chances after the break.

Carlos Hernandez hit the post with a free-kick for Melbourne while Danny Allsopp missed an open goal - albeit hitting a first time shot on the end of a 40-yard aerial ball.

The general consensus from the Victory fans is that the team is paying the price for not playing enough attacking players and not having enough attacking depth.

The worm is turning on last season's top scorer in the league Danny Allsopp with his tally on just two after 13 games.

Next weekend Melbourne will be at home to Wellington Phoenix, the New Zealand-based team only one of two below Victory on the eight team ladder.

Anything less than a win and our season is over. Even with seven games to come after next week it's not dramatic to say that we won't be able to make up a gap of four-points plus in this horrible form slump.

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.

Melbourne is putting together a winning run after starting its season with five consecutive draws.

Sydney is fast becoming our "bunny" in the A-League be it home or away and we continued the pain for bling with a 1-0 win last night - help yourself to the report from the official website.

Melbourne's new attack-based style paid off last night as the likes of Matthew Kemp and Kevin Muscat pushed forward from their backfield positions and exerted themselves on the contest.

And despite being quiet for most of the night Danny Allsopp helped himself to the match-winning goal nine minutes from time - on the spot and accurate with the finish when needed.

Melbourne is back in Adelaide for the second time of the season next week, last time it was a lucky draw after Nathan Burns blew an open header to win the game.

This time around Melbourne will be confident of continuing the winning form, but over the course of 90 minutes this team is still barely gearing up - as a fan I'd happily take a draw back from Hindmarsh stadium.

Sydney fans will claim that the game was over-officiated last night and a sprawl of yellow cards and a red to their midfield general Steve Corica would back that claim up.

The problem inevitably when the issue of referee influence comes up is Mark Shield is in charge, the man who I believe is a genuine contender to referee the 2010 World Cup final.

Last night I don't think he had much choice in sending Corica off, but by all impressions he was as much about the big stage of Sydney v Melbourne.

Despite being maligned in most fan-circles I continue to cut Mark a break, but he did himself no favours yesterday evening in terms of winning over both fans and neutrals who think he imposes himself too strongly on the contest.

And my pet hate? People who STILL continue to call him "Mark Shields" - how that ever came to be I don't know.

Until next time, go Victory.

Melbourne Victory drew with Adelaide on Friday night 1-1 after Rodrigo Vargas scored, then conceded a penalty which was converted by Travis Dodd.

But with Argentina already in the country and playing against Australia on the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday night (eastern time) there is a lot of excitement about seeing the likes of Messi, Tevez and company in the flesh.

Note that the excitement is about seeing the Argentinians, not about Australia playing the Argentinians. Because if Argentina treat Tuesday as anything more than a glorified holiday it will get ugly.

Although he's not the best player to have graced the MCG - Zidane played here for France in 2001 - Messi will be the most interesting player to watch. If it means Australia losing 3 or 4-nil i'll happily watch him go on a run from the centreline to the box, ball at his feet, weaving in and out of opponents.

So back to the Victory, three draws from three games and they conceded immediately after going in front in the 80th minute. Again, a draw was a good result given Nathan Burns who had enjoyed a flawless season to date put an open-net header against the bar when it was harder not to make the score 2-1 to Adelaide. Melbourne are improving, our latest signing Sebastian Ryall is impressing, and up next is the 3-wins-from-3 Central Cost Mariners at the Telstra Dome.

It's not quite Argentina at the MCG, so I won't lie to you and say "how interesting" - let's see the Argies first and worry about the A-League come the weekend.

Melbourne Victory 0-0 Perth Glory - Official A-League report

Another disappointing draw for Melbourne tonight in front of 31, 545 at Telstra Dome. Let's not forget what an amazing crowd that is, it seems that little bit less special because Melbourne drew so many fantastic crowds at the 53-odd-thousand capacity dome last season but it's still sensational.

What's disappointing is what I'm reading on the Victory fans forum about fans dividing between the first and third level and chanting against each other. Politics about chanting, sitting and not contributing are becoming a week-to-week issue with many diehard chanters infuriated by people sitting on level one and not contributing. There is no easy answer, this is Australia, you can't have chant police demanding people chant. By the same token the last thing anyone wants is the passionate fanbase being dissipated by apathetic infiltrators.

 On the pitch I'll confess I didn't see the game, too busy with a soccer awards night of my own - but from the sound of things Perth played a more adventurous game than what they bought to the dome last season when the Victory snared a 1-0 win in the last minute.

Unfortunately it sounds as though Daniel Piorkowski who is back in competitive action after a season ending injury last year is horribly off the pace. New signings Carlos Hernandez, Joe Keenan and Kaz Patafta are all cameo players for now rather than part of a cohesive unit. One thing is for sure, this team will either kick-start its season or get a wake up call against Adelaide United next weekend when we travel to Hindmarsh.

That is, if it's not a third straight draw.

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"

Sydney were eliminated from the Asian Champions League this evening after drawing 0-0 away to the Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan. It officially ends Australia's involvement in the competition, Adelaide's dead-rubber game against Dong Tam Long An of Vietnam a 3-0 win courtesy of a Travis Dodd hat-trick.

 The focus on Sydney's exit won't get a great deal of coverage, given it fell on the same night as State of Origin rugby league, but it's likely that what will be said will be sympathetic to the Bling's cause. Sydney should be disappointed that they couldn't find a way through against a Urawa team only mildly interested in winning the match, and succeeding with a safety first approach.

Sydney's best two chances of the match were poles apart in terms of quality. In the second half David Carney hit the outside of the post with a brilliant left-footed shot from outside of the area. David Zdrilic's miss in the first half was considerably less impressive. Unmarked ten yards from goal, Zdrilic headed a cross from the right flank nowhere near the goal. How heavily that miss is criticised may be swept away by the "brave" Sydney team, who stood up to an always-singing throng of Urawa fans, and seemed less than daunted by the atmosphere and occasion.

 In other A-League news, Melbourne finally signed off on a new stadium agreement today at the Olympic Park site. For now, it will be opened in 2009 with a seating capacity of 31,000 seats. The debate about "safe standing" seems set to continue, with a chance the actual capacity of the venue may be around the 35,000 mark by the time the stadium opens. And in a win for the club, an agreement was reached where blockbuster games can be moved to the Telstra Dome - although one hopes that by 2009 the A-League season will be longer than 21 home and away games (meaning today's breakdown of 7 at OP and 5 at the Dome will be irrelevant).

 And keep an eye on the Australian page at OleOle because the "revenge" friendly between Australia and Uruguay is coming soon.