Newcastle Jets confirmed its status as Melbourne Victory's bogey side, running out 2-0 winners after the game was book-ended by a goal from each of the Griffiths brothers.
Melbourne's task was made the more difficult following the dismissal of defender Steve Pantelidis midway through the second-half for lashing out with an elbow to the face of Joel Griffiths in a nasty clash.
Defender Adam Griffiths silenced the home crowd with a headed goal after eight minutes, outjumping Danny Allsopp at the far post from Adam D'Apuzzo's free-kick.
His striking brother Joel Griffiths netted near the end after Mark Bridge intercepted a pass by Rodrigo Vargas and played the ball quickly to Joel Griffiths who faced only Victory goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos. The Victory defensive line was bare as Melbourne pressed for the equaliser.
"Tactically, I was very proud of the boys," said Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond in the after-match media conference. "We tried to make sure there wasn't any space behind. It wasn't one of our better footballing displays, but it wasn't the day for that."
"You're playing away from home and you know you're not going to dominate the game for long periods of time," he said. "(Victory) have a style of play and tonight we felt that we could play them on the counter and that would be the way to get three points."
"We played probably our best football," said an upbeat Victory coach Ernie Merrick after the game. "Our quality passing in the front third was terrific, it was just our shooting was poor "I'm not happy with the result, but I was extremely happy with the performance of the players."
"It's a funny old game - you'd swear you'd come away with some points from a game like that," he said. "That's the style and quality of football that'll get us into the Finals, and if we keep playing like that, we'll do well in the Finals."
Melbourne Victory opened with its whirlwind trademark, requiring the Jets' defence to be on full alert to ensure it wasn't blown away. The pressure came to nothing however, and it was from a Jets' free-kick the visitors took an unlikely early lead.
Jets' game-plan was to cramp the Victory strikers by defending deeply and striking on the counter. The early goal meant it had something to defend from the start. Despite significant Victory possession, it was not until midway through the half that Melbourne sought to retain the ball and stretch the Jets' defence, putting together a sustained series of passes and awaiting Archie Thompson to find space wide. Archie Thompson then cut inside before shooting overly high.
The retreat allowed Victory's defensive backs to act as orthodox wingers, Joe Keenan especially making good ground wide left in his link-ups. Too often though, Jets forced him to cut inside and onto his less-preferred right foot, negating much of his forward involvement.
The Jets' midfield too was coping adequately with Victory forays which lacked an edge. Newcastle was clearly content to allow Victory to take the game up to it and playing on the counter.
As a result, Victory had both the majority of possession as well as possession in the Jets' half, but could not find the key to unlocking the Jets' defence.
Vargas will be aggrieved at not being awarded a penalty after a high challenge by Jade North as both contested a high ball into the area, and Allsopp had earlier claimed he was pushed by Andy Griffiths in the contest which concluded with the Jets' opener, but with the overwhelming balance of possession running Victory's way, it should not point to these incidents as the reason for defeat. It was a combination of poor-quality shooting and being unable to find the ball behind the Jets' defence which was the reason for Victory being shut out.
As the game wore on, the pattern continued: Victory would be allowed the ball, but the hard-working Jets refused to allow penetration into dangerous areas.
Pantelidis ended his game early, dismissed just after the hour for violent conduct, using an elbow to fend off the attentions of Joel Griffiths who was impeding one of his runs up the left. Victory was awarded the free-kick for Griffiths' unfair attentions but that was poor comfort for Pantelidis or Victory given the resource deficiency from that point.
"(Pantelidis) was being man-handled (but) he did the wrong thing," said Merrick. "I'm sure he understands that."
Substitute Adrian Caceres was introduced late on and had what proved to be Victory's best chance from a quickly-taken free-kick by Kevin Muscat. Jets' goalkeeper Ante Covic was alter to the danger and held on. It was one of the few on-target strikes Victory had, despite the one-way nature of the possession.
The game slipped completely Jets' way after a miscued pass by Vargas was intercepted and played to Joel Griffiths who had a clear run in on goal, slipping the ball wide of the hopelessly-exposed Michael Theoklitos two minutes from time.
"Rody made a boo-boo at the end, but what a great game he had," said Merrick, disinclined to make overly much of the misplaced pass from his central defender.
Some unsporting by-play was exchanged between the pair as the striker was replaced shortly afterwards and play was up the other end of the ground. It continued after the game had ended, with Theoklitos being ushered away by his team-mates.
The win was even more meritorious considering van Egmond was compelled to change his plans minutes before kick-off. Midfielder Stuart Musialik became ill during the pre-game warm up and had to be replaced by Noel Spencer. Musialik took up a position on the bench, but was clearly off-colour and was scarcely in a fit state were he to have been needed.
Once again a sizeable number of Victory supporters participated in a silent standing vigil on the stadium's third level throughout the game in protest at stadium demands that there be no standing other than at ground level. Only from midway through the second half, as Victory trailed by a goal and was a man down, did they burst into song, doubling the cauldron's volume in an instant.
After the full-time whistle, they remained silent and seated in the stadium for several minutes as security and police considered what, if any, action they should take to remove them. But, as in the previous home game, after regaining their feet to let out a short series of songs, they departed the stadium in an orderly and calm manner.