It was the only Melbourne Derby to open the A-League season and it would be a memorable one for all involved at the Club as Dylan Macallister netted the winner in the 2-1 win over our close rivals.
The highly anticipated start to the season kicked off at Etihad Stadium on 5 October, 2012 as the two foes came up against each other, both sides with very different looks.
Head Coaches John Aloisi and Ange Postecoglou lead their sides for the first time in the contest as the new coaches were welcomed to a heated encounter in front of 42,032 fans.
Victory struggled to settle into their new style in the early stages of the contest as David Williams opened the scoring after 14 minutes, making the most of a teasing ball from Richard Garcia and a smart dummy from Macallister to open the scoring.
The home side would peg one back through Marco Rojas but it would be Macalllister who would make his mark on the match again in first half stoppage time.
A wonderful run down the right wing from Mate Dugandzic was met with an even better ball across the box to the big striker who made no mistake in burying his effort past Lawrence Thomas.
It was an arm-wrestle in the second half as both sides had chances to change the score line, most notably Williams who pounced on an error from Adrian Leijer to force a fine save from Thomas, but it would be Macallister’s goal that would prove to be the winner in another epic Melbourne Derby encounter.
