Merrick nets 100th win as Phoenix enter top six
Ernie Merrick’s 100th win as an A-league manager could turn out to be one of his best.
The Scotsman crafted a tactical masterpiece for the All Whites-less Wellington Phoenix in their 2-0 win over the Central Coast Mariners in Canberra on Saturday night.
Yes, the Mariners look destined for the foot of the table again, but losing five Kiwis to international duty, as well as two other frontline players to injury, from a squad of 22 and still managing to dominate any team is quite a feat.
The Phoenix played a compact game which saw the sides locked at 0-0 at halftime. The Phoenix utilised Roy Krishna’s pace well in the second spell, as the Fijian scored the first goal and setup the second for Hamish Watson.
‘‘Hamish did really well and Roy was on fire up front and his pace was incredible. We knew that, so we setup for a counter attacking game,’’ Merrick said.
‘‘Our defence was where the real inexperience was. Marco [Rossi] is an experienced player of course, but Ryan Lowry next to him, it was his first A-league game, Jacob Tratt has only played six and Matt Ridenton hasn’t played left back very often at all.
‘‘With an inexperienced lineup at the back we made sure we were very compact, we relied on fast breaking and I thought Roly [Bonevacia], Roy and Hamish were first class there.’’
It meant the first back-to-back wins since round three last season, and saw the Phoenix climb into the top six after the Western Sydney Wanderers lost 3-0 to the Melbourne Victory on Saturday.
Merrick said to have won in such dominant fashion was pleasing, but still had time to take aim at the match officials.
‘‘Overall we had nearly twice as many shots as they did, we hit the post with Gui’s [Finkler] freekick and I thought we were due a penalty, but we don’t have much luck getting penalties. We have a lot
against us but we don’t get many for us.’’
As good as the wins against the Mariners and Newcastle Jets have been, those teams are also-rans again this season.
The real test for how well the team is going will be against the Victory in Wellington next Saturday, a team that pumped them 6-1 at Etihad Stadium just two weeks ago.
What shape the All Whites players come back in after a trip to New Caledonia for Tuesday’s game is something Merrick will have to deal with during the week.
He will have a happy selection headache though, with the rare treat of fringe players sticking their hands up for selection out of the Mariners game.
In particular, Lowry at centre back and Watson up front performed very well.
Bonevacia was dropped to the bench against the Jets, but showed why he should be starting with a top performance against the Mariners.
But for now, Merrick was happy to revel in the win, with his trademark wit to the fore at the end of the post-match media conference.
‘‘By the way, they said it was my 100th win, they’ve got it all wrong it’s much more than that,’’ he said with a laugh.