Melbourne City hang on to claim back-to-back Premier’s Plates

Melbourne City has secured back-to-back premierships, edging cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory for the Premier’s Plate.

Melbourne City players celebrate claiming their second consecutive Premier’s Plate

Melbourne City have secured back-to-back premierships, edging cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory for the Premier’s Plate, after just hanging on for a 2-1 win against an understrength Wellington Phoenix.

After Victory struck the first blow in the race for the Plate with a win of its own on Saturday and Western United failed to overcome Adelaide, the equation was simple for City heading into Monday night’s contest: win and another Plate is added to City’s trophy cabinet; lose or draw and the plate remains at AAMI Park with its direct rivals.

Fortunately for City, they made it the former, atoning for the missed opportunity to win the Plate against Perth Glory last Wednesday — meaning they head into the finals as the league’s number one seed ahead of second-placed Victory.

However, the reigning champions were made to work for it by a resilient Phoenix outfit, who despite being without a number of key individuals, pushed Patrick Kisnorbo’s side right to the wire.

Wellington were backed by a vocal set of Victory fans who packed into the away en. But in the early stages, it looked to be one-way traffic as City piled on two goals inside the opening 10 minutes.

A Sam Sutton own-goal and back-post Jamie Maclaren header helped create an early two-goal advantage, but City were unable to put the game away.

Wellington worked their way into the contest after half-time with Ben Waine pulling one back only nine minutes after the restart. But in the end, City did just enough to hang on.

City will now curiously observe this weekend’s action as their semi-final opponent will be the lowest-ranked winner from the elimination finals.

Meanwhile, Wellington, who went into the contest knowing they will play Western United in the elimination final, will now gear up for its meeting against John Aloisi’s side back at AAMI next Saturday night.

No player in A-League Men’s history had ever won back-to-back-to-back Golden Boots heading into this season — until now.

Maclaren became the first person, unless there is a virtual miracle in Tuesday night’s Brisbane Roar vs Sydney FC clash, to achieve the feat. He’s also the only player to win four Golden Boots since the competition’s inception — with three of those coming at City and the other at Brisbane.

The City striker added his 15th of the campaign inside the opening-half, wrapping up the Boot with an instinctive finish at the back post after Andrew Nabbout flicked Taras Gomulka’s corner in his path.