Melbourne Victory put a big hole in Central Coast Mariners' title ambitions and enhanced their own prospects with a strong performance and a 5-2 win at Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium on New Year's Eve.
The benefit of having four of their last five A League games at home was to some extent squandered or nullified by the Mariners, who, by losing this, made it two losses in as many matches in front of their own supporters, having lost 5-4 in painful circumstances to late-improvers and deadly rivals Sydney FC a week earlier.
The masses gathered at their stadium by the bay, each time, would have left disappointed if not dismayed by their erstwhile table-topping team's collapse and shattered self confidence.
A mounting injury toll, allied to suspensions at the most critical times, make Central Coast a little vulnerable now and the two teams that beat them face the immediate future with a far greater deal of optimism as a result of the Mariners' mistakes.
Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick is trying hard to play down his club's chances of making a late dash for the finals, while Sydney coach John Kosmina is also wary of making any rash predictions.
Effectively crying crocodile tears Merrick said he felt sorry for Mariners' stand-in keeper, Matthew Trott, for copping five goals against his Victory side, following on from the four he conceded the previous week, when taking over from Danny Vukovic when the young Socceroos prospect was sent off early in the Sydney game.
"We are getting much-needed confidence ahead of our Asian Champions League campaign," insisted Merrick.
"It's too late for us now (to make the finals) and we just want to get back in form before we begin our Asian adventure."
Yet Melbourne, who impressed in every department here, could be a catalyst for changing the face of the league in the weeks before the finals, with an important match in Brisbane against equal leaders Queensland Roar coming up.
A win there would help the Mariners and could also make Melbourne an outside chance themselves.
Mathematically Victory can still do it but they would be relying on others in the four to falter though given the unpredictable nature of the competition this last few weeks it would be folly to write them off.
In this game Melbourne goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos had more to do than his opposite number Trott, with John Aloisi in particular trying his best to bring his home side back into the game after going behind 4-1 by half time.
Trott could not be blamed, after some very ordinary defensive work by experienced men like Damien Brown and Tony Vidmar.
The absence of John Hutchinson was keenly felt with Melbourne controlling the middle of the park for long periods.
Clinical finishing and some early elements of good luck and careless defending by the Mariners allowed Melbourne to build an impregnable lead.
Archie Thompson and the always under-rated Daniel Allsopp were both at their best in this game and the emergence in defence of Sebastian Ryall and Matthew Kemp, along with the composure of Kevin Muscat, gave Merrick's men the edge.
The goals were well-taken by the predatory duo of Allsopp and Thompson and changes made at half time to the Mariners' midfield were to prove ineffective.
Brown came off and the lack of match practice by his replacement, big defender Paul O'Grady, was clear for all to see.
Losing twice in a row is bad enough but leaking ten goals in two games is hardly premiership-winning stuff.
Mariners' coach Lawrie McKinna described his team's effort as 'poor' but the main concern is of restoring confidence ahead of the team's trip to Perth next weekend in a must-win match.
Two remaining home games may be beneficial to the Central Coast side, but a loss in Perth would hurt the side a great deal.
The question will be whether the return of the suspended Vukovic and Adam Kwasnik and a fit again Hutchison can restore some pride and repay the faith of the supporters who turned out in such record numbers for each of the side's two devastating home losses over the Christmas New Year period.
With Muscat and Kemp giving nothing away Melbourne was able to make the most of the midfield contributions of Adrian Caceres and the emerging Leigh Broxham to run the home side into the ground.
An inexplicably-directed header towards his unprepared keeper, by Brown after only five minutes, was savagely seized upon by Caceres who deftly lifted the ball over the hopelessly exposed Trott and the locals were immediately in very real trouble.
Tom Pondeljak had wretched misfortune in the 16th minute when he saw Mile Jedinak's cross headed against the bar by a team mate only to be denied at the far post by a defender's challenge himself when trying to finish the move.
Then it was 2-0 in the 24th.
Caceres was once again a factor. His cross from deep on the right was met perfectly by Allsopp inside the six yard box, with the big man silencing his critics with the kind of finish only a top class striker can provide.
Brown who had made the shocking error that gifted Victory the first goal was anxious to redeem himself and nearly did so in the 30th after latching onto a clearance that saw the ball arrive at his feet 22 yards out.
Brown's blast brought out a super save from Theoklitos surely as good a player if not a better one than the man he fought for ascendancy with in the Melbourne goal previously, the Victory man looking a likely call up to Pim's squad if he can deliver this ability consistently.
For all his good work, however, Melbourne's was a big team effort with Muscat leading the way and the contributions of Broxham and Ryall not to be discounted, while Muscat and Kemp were outstandlng against the qualities of Aloisi and the rest of the Mariners' attack.
Aloisi toiled long and hard and surely deserved more than his one goal on this occasion for the luckless Mariners.
Central Coast were able to fight back to be only 2-1 down in the 32nd minute when Jedinak hit a fabulous swerving shot from the right and 25 yards out that completely fooled the otherwise impeccable Melbourne keeper.
But when Aloisi's low drive was blocked on the Victory line by the well positioned Muscat in the 34th Mariners' fans just knew this was not going to be their day.
Five minutes later Allsopp and Thompson were at their best again, two on two with the best the Coast could offer in defence, the latter's cross from wide on the right put away superbly by Allsopp to make it 3-1 to the visitors.
A lovely ball from Ryall sent Thompson through in the 41st and an ill-timed tackle from Tony Vidmar meant Melbourne had a penalty they could hardly have expected.
Muscat went for placement and demonstrated once again how as a penalty-taker he has few equals for club or country.
Twice early in the second half Melbourne could easily have gone two goals further ahead.
Broxham got the better of a flat-footed and slow O'Grady but his cross eluded Allsopp as the talented marksman raced in to convert,
Caceres in the 48th got into the box to face Trott but the young keeper managed to touch the ball away.
Another minute later and Ryall arrived from deep to just fail to connect with a ball sent over from a Melbourne corner.
Melbourne continued to show all the skills and made things even worse for the home side when Muscat turned a dangerous looking situation at the back to advantage by taking the ball out of defence and finding Thompson in the 61st.
Thompson was able to dart through and spring any would-be offside trap before cutting the ball across the face of goal for the simplest of tap-ins by Allsopp.
Relaxing after that goal Melbourne saw the Mariners score a second goal a minute later with the hard working Pondeljak setting up Aloisi for a tidy finish.
But that was all the home side could manage.
Misses by substitute Matt Simon and saves from Aloisi by Theoklitos ruined any hope of a shock comeback from the Coast.
Thompson almost made it six in stoppage time, unnecessarily taking on one defender too many inside the penalty area when a more direct approach would surely have yielded more.
If Melbourne can play this well over the final weeks then surely they can provide themselves with even more than much needed practice and confidence ahead of their Asian challenge.
The Mariners will need to recover valuable ground if their own ambitions of Asian Champions League football next season are to be realised with a top two finish now.