A-League Review: Berisha the hero for Melbourne Victory

Besart Berisha scored a hat-trick to help Melbourne Victory to a 3-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers in Saturday’s A-League encounter at the ANZ Stadium.

The 31-year-old broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark when he tapped home a rebound after goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne failed to hold on to a long-range strike from Maximilian Beister.

Berisha continued to cause the Wanderers defence all kinds of trouble after the break and he doubled his side’s lead in the 65th minute with a fine header, before making it three late on after outmuscling two defenders.

The attacker’s heroics saw Melbourne extend their unbeaten run to four games, collecting 10 points from the last four outings.

Wellington Phoenix saw off Central Coast Mariners 3-0 to end a hectic week on a high after Ernie Merrick’s decision to step down.

Hamish Watson gave his side the start they were after when he deflected a Kosta Barbarouses strike past goalkeeper Ivan Necevski after just two minutes.

Vince Lia gave Wellington further reason to celebrate midway through the second half with a sublime long-distance strike, before Roy Krishna decided the match well into stoppage time.

Newcastle Jets climbed up to seventh place in the table following a 2-1 away win over Perth Glory.

The home side went a goal up when Nebojsa Marinkovic found the net with a sweet finish in the seventh minute, but Andrew Hoole restored parity in the 21st minute after some good work from Devante Clut.

An unfortunate own goal from Milan Smiljanic in the dying seconds of the first half proved enough to earn Newcastle the win.