A flurry of late goals has delivered the Central Coast Mariners their equal biggest A-League win, handing reigning champions Melbourne Victory a 4-0 thrashing at Etihad Stadium.

After Adam Kwasnik scored the only goal of the first half in the 15th minute, Matt Simon, Dean Heffernan and Nik Mrdja all joined him in the space of nine minutes late in the second.

It was the Mariners' second win in Melbourne in as many visits, after they downed the Victory 2-0 in the opening round.

Their only previous four-goal win was over Perth Glory in the A-League's inaugural season.

Their performance in attack was backed by another outstanding team defensive effort, to continue their exceptionally miserly record this season - conceding just eight goals in 14 matches.

The result was remarkable, given the Victory had entered the game in top form, having won six of their previous seven matches and have been the competition's highest-scoring side.

But they were rarely able to create decent chances, and the few they had were superbly handled by Mariners' keeper Danny Vukovic.

The opening goal was set up by Nicky Travis, who controlled the ball past two opponents and fired a shot which was parried away by Victory keeper Glen Moss, only for Kwasnik to pounce on the rebound.

The closest Melbourne came to scoring was just before half-time, when Vukovic did well to deflect an on-target Archie Thompson strike from inside the penalty area.

Melbourne's Sutee Suksomkit wasted a golden chance 10 minutes into the second half, when he failed to control a cross which found him at close range, coach Ernie Merrick benching him a minute later.

But two quick substitutions failed to spark the Victory, and instead it was the Mariners who pressed hard.

Simon scored with a far post header from a Travis corner, the ball deflecting off defender Rody Vargas into the goal in the 75th minute.

Dean Heffernan continued a poor night for Moss when he rolled a left-footer through the keeper's legs in the 80th, before Mrdja capitalised on another Central Coast corner four minutes later with a close-range finish.

Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said it was as good a regular season performance as his side had produced.

"We've had a few good ones, but away from home, 4-0 against the champions, a solid performance, the first half we were happy how we were going, we thought we could get better and I thought the second half we did that," McKinna said.

"We had quite a few chances, but saying that, Danny Vukovic at crucial times in the game pulled off some world-class saves ... the three strikers all got goals tonight. We said all along they had goals in them and tonight they got them.

"From midfield to defence to strikers, everybody did their job."

Victory coach Ernie Merrick, who the club announced has just signed on for another two seasons, said his side never looked like they were switched on, while defender Vargas said Melbourne allowed themselves to be bullied.

"It was like a schoolyard, a year 12 bullying a year 10, we got bullied out there, we had no fight and we threw the towel in and that's not what Melbourne Victory stands for," Vargas said.