A-League golden boot winner Bruno Fornaroli has returned to his regular goalscoring ways, netting and assisting in Melbourne City's 3-0 win over Western Sydney.
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The Uruguayan looked back to his old self in City's dominant display over the Wanderers, in front of just 6,354 fans at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Fornaroli opened the scoring before Michael Jakobsen headed home a first A-League goal and Stefan Mauk iced the match.
A bumper weekend of sport and rotten weather sunk City's attendance, but Warren Joyce's team didn't care.
They ran riot over a desperately poor Wanderers team.
Going into the match Western Sydney were in sixth position, with a solid run of form under Josep Gombau and needing a win to shore up a finals place.
They didn't manage a shot on target for 89 minutes and will limp out of the finals positions if Brisbane can beat bottom-placed Wellington on Sunday.
"Today wasn't a good game for us," Gombau conceded.
"They won every single battle on the field. With the ball. Without the ball. Second balls. Everything.
"We want to be in the finals but we have to change the mentality and work more hard."
City's result - which ends a winless six-week run - takes them closer to a home final.
After starting on top of the Wanderers, City looked set to go into the break without a deserved lead until Nathaniel Atkinson's heroic run on 42 minutes.
The Tasmanian took the ball from his own box into the Wanderers half, laying a decisive - if unintended - touch from Daniel Arzani's cross that allowed Fornaroli to rocket home an opener.
It was Fornaroli's first goal from open play this season after a severe ankle injury sidelined him for six months.
Arzani was his usual lively self, attracting plenty of attention from defenders and working Vedran Janjetovic in the Wanderers goal.
He was involved once more in City's second, teeing up Luke Brattan at a corner who crossed perfectly for Jakobsen.
City's third goal was the easiest on the eye, with Fornaroli taking control of the ball at the top of the box and flicking a backheel in Mauk's direction to score.
Joyce said he was relieved after early toil went unrewarded.
"(I was) frustrated we didn't score several goals in the first half because its happened a few times this season where we've not taken our chances and they could have scored ... that would have been doubly frustrating," he said.
"We picked it up and were good value for three or maybe more goals."
Australian Associated Press
