ANALYSIS: Gold Coast United edged closer to the Premiership after a weekend that saw Miron Bleiberg’s men snatch three points off title rivals Melbourne Victory while Sydney FC stumbled at Suncorp 24 hours later.
United's hopes for a Premiers' Plate were given a massive boost by their spiteful 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory on Friday night at Skilled Park.
And on Saturday night, their rivals from up the M1 did them a massive favour as they dispatched the sky blues by a similar margin.
With two games to go, Victory are top only on goal difference, with Gold Coast also on 44 points. Sydney are two points off them both in third place with 42 points.
But two factors are in Gold Coast's favour as we heading into the last two games of the regular home and away season.
First, key Melbourne player Kevin Muscat could potentially miss the next two games after an incident with Jason Culina that could attract the interest of the match review committee.
Victory without Muscat are a different proposition and the footage does not look good for the Melbourne skipper.
Second, Victory and Sydney play each other in the final round blockbuster at the SFS. In this game, it's possible these two rivals could cancel each other out.
If so and Gold Coast continue their winning ways, the new boys could sneak in to win the Premiers' Plate and a spot in Asia.
Gold Coast's ugly win could prove to be a beautiful moment in their inaugural season. This will be a riveting run-in to the finals.
Gold Coast United 1 Melbourne Victory 0
For five glorious minutes, this top of the table clash hinted at what could be. United started in furious fast-break style and Victory looked equally up to the task in a stunning opening stanza. All was set for a cracking evening of A-League footy - then it all went horribly wrong.
Early in the half, Melbourne magnet for biff, Robbie Kruse, and inevitably Steve Pantelidis kicked off the niggle with an incident that resulted in the Victory forward later being withdrawn due to injury.
From that point on, football-wise there was precious little for the 7000 plus fans to enjoy. It was tight and with a foul count rising like mortgage rates, the game's flow was throttled.
Thankfully Gold Coast's under-rated Zenon Caravella reclaimed the agenda with a peach of a strike in the latter stages (his first in this competition). It proved a precious winner for the home side.
Wellington Phoenix 1 Adelaide United 0
A fantastic stadium, perfect surface, a stunning crowd and three badly needed points for the New Zealand franchise made it a cracker weekend for the black and yellow stripes.
Johnny McKain popped up in the box with an opportune first half strike to send the almost 20,000 fans at AMI Stadium into delirium.
Adelaide's pop-gun attack again failed to fire. With the ACL now less than a month away, this is a real concern for Aurelio Vidmar.
For Phoenix, their first ever win over the Reds could not have been more timely after their disastrous two-game run through Oz over the previous, forgettable, week.
Ricki Herbert's men can now dream of finals football just three seasons after they were formed by generous owner Terry Serepisos.
These are heady days for New Zealand football.
Brisbane Roar 1 Sydney FC 0
Sydney should have had the points sealed up well before emerging goal-sneak Luke DeVere's shot went in off Sergio van Dijk's hip in the final minutes.
During an at-times high-quality affair at Suncorp, a litany of chances were spurned by the slick sky blues with Alex Brosque, John Aloisi and Steve Corica all going close.
And with referee Michael Hester in generous mood - Clint Bolton was lucky to have stayed on the park - Vitezslav Lavicka's men should have buried their feisty opponents.
But with future star Tommy Oar in eye-catching form again, Roar hung on and took their chance - albeit a scrappy one.
What's more, with guest coaching assistant Patrick Kluivert in the dugout, it was a feel-good ending to Brisbane's season at Suncorp that kept their slim finals chances alive.
Sydney will play finals football. But the loss has sucked much of the life out of their top two aspirations. Now in third place and two points off second with two games to go, the double chance spot would appear a long shot for the sky blues.
But who could predict anything in this crazy season?
Perth Glory 3 Central Coast Mariners 1
Perth Glory made history by qualifying for their first finals series since the A-League began. The winning platform was set up by a scorching first half which blew away a strangely disinterested Central Coast to the tune of three goals.
A second half comeback of sorts wasn't enough for the Mariners who have finished the season in disarray after this 3-1 loss which stretched their run to ten games without a victory.
For Glory, emboldened by their showing without key men Burns, Velaphi and Sterjovski, they'll be looking to hold onto fourth spot or even push into third.
It makes this weekend's clash with third placed Sydney at Parramatta Stadium even more interesting.
This historic win also showcased the emerging partnership between Daniel McBreen and Andrija Jukic. This temporary twosome upfront could cause plenty of headaches in the next few weeks.
McBreen's brace made it four goals in a Glory shirt since his short-term move from North Queensland Fury while Jukic scored his first ever goal in the A-League this weekend.
North Queensland Fury v Newcastle Jets
Match postponed. Replay is on Tuesday night.