The numbers that matter
The big winners of Round 14 were...
Adelaide United, who are now smack bang in the middle of a logjam that has just five points between first-place Auckland and eighth-place Melbourne City just past the halfway point of the season.
For the second time in six weeks, Airton Andrioli's side have recorded back-to-back wins to stay in the finals race, and each of their last two came against their closest rivals (Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory) for the bottom end of the top-six.
Brisbane would have been inspired by the return of their grieving head coach, but the occasion was not to overawe second-gamer Brody Burkitt, who came off the bench in the second half and tore the Roar apart with a devastating hat-trick that further underlines the young depth at Andrioli's disposal.
It's the kind of winning form they need ahead of a very difficult run of fixtures that includes two other in-form sides of the competition (Macarthur and Newcastle) at home before a trip to Sydney, which is never easy even if the Sky Blues are still in their rut.
Only the Jets are ahead of Adelaide for goals scored this season, and whilst they've picked up only one clean sheet in their last ten matches, the overall results have been improving of late.
The big losers of Round 14 were...
Sydney FC - what on earth is happening to Ufuk Talay's side?
Talay went into the week describing Sydney's stretch of six games in 27 days as potentially season defining, so the remarkable 4-0 result at AAMI Park would have been the last result he wanted as the Sky Blues slipped to fourth.
Albeit with one game in hand on the top-two and two in hand on third-place Macarthur, games in hand aren't going to be of much worth if they continue the run of results that has seen them pick up only four of a possible 15 points from their last five appearances.
They controlled 58% of possession against the Victory but could muster up only half the shots, one third of the shots on target and one quarter of the corners racked up by their hosts.
Sydney are not getting goals regularly out of Victor Campuzano, Tiago Quintal, Pat Wood or Piero Quispe, and that puts a lot of pressure on the returning Joe Lolley to deliver immediately in this weekend's Sydney derby.
Team of the Week
Read more about our Team of the Week here.
Goal of the Week
27 goals to choose from this week, but for us, the quickest one was the finest. What a way to bring the home crowd into the game from the outset!
What the managers said
Warren Moon (Central Coast Mariners): "We didn't play as well as we would have liked, but credit to the team. One thing we've shown the league this season is that we're fighters and we're staying in every game. There were moments in the game where I think we were poor. But we hung in there, we fought and we got our rewards in the end. This is a good group of men that are fighting not just for each other but for the fans and the community."
Michael Valkanis (Brisbane Roar): "What's disappointing is we should have finished that game off in the first half. We should have gone in (at half-time) not 1-0 up but 3-0 or 4-0. I didn't like the way we started the second half either, but we reacted well and then played at the intensity I wanted to start off with."
Aurelio Vidmar (Melbourne City): "It was poor. We know that. So inconsistent. The majority of the season has been like that and tonight was no different. It was a very poor startup and then it was catchup. We've shown a lot of good moments this season but also plenty of poor moments such as tonight. We haven't had much competition in a lot of positions this season and we need competition."
Read about how all 12 managers reflected on their team's weekend performances here.
Next week's fixtures
