Melbourne Victory 6 Wellington Phoenix 1: Berisha reaches milestone with hat-trick

Besart Berisha scored a hat-trick as Melbourne Victory thrashed 10-man Wellington Phoenix 6-1 in the A-League.

Victory’s emphatic win moves them up to third in the early season table with seven points from four games, while Phoenix are bottom and pointless, despite having scored their first goal of the campaign during an otherwise miserable outing.

Berisha moved past 50 goals for the club with two penalties in three minutes midway through the first half to set the hosts en route to an easy triumph.

The visitors lost Dylan Fox, who had earlier been booked for conceding the second of the penalties, to a second yellow just before the hour mark.

Still, Phoenix initially remained competitive and got back into the game with a spot-kick of their own, Roy Krishna scoring from 12 yards. 

But they collapsed in the closing stages, conceding four times in 20 minutes.

Marco Rojas scored the match’s first goal from open play with an impressive drive before doubling his personal tally with an easier finish shortly afterwards.

Former Albania international Berisha then completed his hat-trick, before Mitch Austin capped the morale-boosting win in stoppage-time after a swift Victory counter-attack.