Melbourne extends dominance over Adelaide

Mate Dugandzic scored twice as Melbourne beat Adelaide 3-1 in the weekend's 12th round of Australia's A-League, posting its eighth-straight league win over its arch rival. Thailand international striker Sutee Suksomkit, in an impressive A-League debut, set up Dugandzic's first goal with a neat pass in the 18th minute. Dugandzic tapped in his second from a cross by Carlos Hernandez before Adam Hughes pulled one back for Adelaide in the 64th minute. Center-back Adrian Leijer headed home a corner to clinch the win and lift Melbourne into second place in the table. Sydney moved to the top of the standings with a 2-1 win over Brisbane, which suffered defeat in the first game for new coach Ange Postecoglou. Second-half goals to striker Alex Brosque and Slovak midfielder Karol Kisel put Sydney ahead before a spirited Brisbane pulled one back through young midfielder Isaka Cernak. Sydney and Melbourne moved up the standings thanks to previous leader Gold Coast suffering a shock 6-0 hammering at the hands of Wellington, which was bottom of the ladder entering the game. Midfielder Daniel scored in each half as Wellington matched the largest winning margin in league history - Melbourne's 6-0 win over Adelaide in the 2007 grand final. Former Milwall striker Paul Ifill, who was among Wellington's scorers, said he had been confident his team would find its scoring touch. "I said before the game I thought somebody would get a spanking, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be this week," he said. "The way we've been playing it's just a case of hitting the back of the net. We got those four goals in 10 minutes in the second half, and we've killed somebody off at last. It's been a long time coming." Former Liverpool star Robbie Fowler scored his fifth league goal as North Queensland beat Perth 2-1 for its first home win in the A-League and only the second win of its debut season. Perth scored first through former Dutch international Victor Sikora but Fowler equalized in the 65th minute and substitute Dyron Daal scored the winner six minutes later. "For the last three or four weeks we've had that opportunity and we have not quite taken it," Fury coach Ian Ferguson said. "But we haven't lost games either, so the good thing is that we're still hanging in there and we still had that opportunity tonight to get off the bottom of the ladder and we've taken it." Two early goals gave Newcastle a 2-1 derby win over Central Coast, breaking a seven-match losing streak. Former Leeds striker Michael Bridges and Labinot Haliti put Newcastle ahead 2-0 before Adam Kwasnik pulled a goal back for Central Coast in a busy opening 19 minutes. The Mariners' goal was preceded by a two-minute long confrontation between players after a hard tackle on former South Korea international Song Jin-Hyung. "We thought 'this is great, the players themselves have decided they want to do something, not just about this game, but where we are'," Newcastle coach Branko Culina said. "That's so much easier for the coach and the coaching staff and the club when the players want to do it rather than you always telling them to do it."