Wellington thrash Victory; increase pressure on Brebner

Wellington have added to Melbourne Victory's woes and ramped up the pressure on coach Grant Brebner with a 4-1 thrashing of the glamour A-League club in Wollongong.

The Phoenix scored twice in each half on Wednesday, with the win moving them up two places to eighth and continuing the Victory's horror season.

It was the Victory's fourth straight loss and their sixth defeat from their last seven matches, during which they have leaked 17 goals.

The visitors had some good passages of play in the first half and enjoyed more opportunities only to be denied by two fine saves from Oliver Sail.

He pushed away an Elvis Kamsoba drive and produced a phenomenal reflex save to deny Ben Folami from close range.

Phoenix played some incisive and attractive football and produced one of the best team goals of the season to open their scoring.

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Reno Piscopo, David Ball and Ulises Davila played perfectly timed passes to set up Tomor Hemed, with the Israeli firing in his third goal in his last three games.

They doubled their lead with a more contentious goal, when Ball netted after the ball came off the elbow of teammate Alex Rufer.

Phoenix almost increased their lead in the 49th minute but Victory goalkeeper Matt Acton made a super stop, tipping a James McGarry shot onto a post.

But any hopes of a Victory revival were snuffed out when Davila's super 62nd-minute strike from the edge of the area arrowed into the net.

Six more minutes elapsed before Clayton Lewis scored his first A-League goal for the Phoenix.

Kamsoba pulled one back in the 76th minute, but it was little consolation for his well-beaten team.