Central Coast Mariners' lead in the Australian A-League was sliced to three points after their third defeat in five games on Sunday. The stuttering Mariners failed to convert a penalty as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat to Melbourne Heart, who moved to fifth spot with the top-six playoffs just four games away.
Central Coast's loss enabled defending champions Brisbane Roar to close to within three points of the championship lead after being 11 points adrift three weeks ago. Heart striker Eli Babalj's sixth goal of the season early in the second half proved the difference in Melbourne.
Roar's Brazilian striker Henrique was sent off, but it mattered little as the reigning champions romped to a 3-0 victory over Perth Glory in Perth.
With the Roar already 3-0 ahead following a brace from Albanian striker Besart Berisha, first goal scorer Henrique was shown a straight red card in the 65th minute for slapping the face of Perth skipper Jacob Burns.
The slap came after Henrique received an accidental elbow to the face from Burns just moments earlier as the pair contested a ball.
Wellington Phoenix left Sydney FC's finals hopes up in the air with a 1-0 win in Sydney on Saturday. An early goal to Paul Ifill earned the Phoenix three valuable points as Sydney failed to capitalise despite dominating the match.
Tarek Elrich scored his first goal of the season to give Newcastle Jets a 1-0 victory over Adelaide United on Friday, effectively putting United out of contention for the finals. Gold Coast United's team of youngsters drew 1-1 with Melbourne Victory on Saturday as United's outspoken billionaire owner Clive Palmer again earned the ire of Football Federation Australia.
In a match played in torrential rain, Palmer caused a storm when he disobeyed an FFA directive for the players not to wear a strip bearing the provocative words "Freedom of Speech".
The FFA formally advised bottom-placed United they were in material breach of their A-League club participation agreement.
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