Wasteful Phoenix blow two-goal lead
Wellington Phoenix blew a golden opportunity to enhance their A-League playoff hopes in Albany last night, letting slip a 3-1 lead, to draw 3-3 with Perth Glory.
The Phoenix went from a side in total control of the game for nearly all of the first half and most of the second, to one that looked in complete disarray defensively and were lucky to come away with a point.
With five games to go and the Phoenix sitting out of the top six, the two points dropped in this game could prove to be decisive.
Goals from Gui FInkler, Roy Krishna and Kosta Barbarouses gave the crowd of 6285 at QBE Stadium plenty to cheer about and certainly they would have been glad they came to watch this, rather than the cricket down the road at Eden Park.
Phoenix co-coach Chris Greenacre said on Friday that they needed to treat every game from here on in like a cup final and that’s how they played, with passion, high energy and a mindset to play attacking football.
Roly Bonevacia, Ryan Lowry and Tom Doyle, the three players who were stood down from last weekend’s remarkable 2-1 over Brisbane were all recalled, but only as far as the substitutes bench.
It continues the streak of the Phoenix never losing in Auckland, with now four wins and three draws from their seven games in the city, but it’s six years since they have defeated the Glory in New Zealand.
Adam Taggart had the opening shot on goal in the second minute, but his effort went straight to Phoenix goal keeper Glen Moss.
Two minutes later Roy Krishna took the ball forward for the Phoenix and Barbarouses’ strike was deflected for a corner.
Already the signs were there that this was going to be a high-scoring affair and it didn’t take long for the deadlock to be broken, with Finkler getting his name on the scoresheet in the 10th minute. The Brazilian’s shot took a wicked deflection off the outstretched boot of Joseph Mills, giving Liam Reddy chance of making a save.
The Phoenix continued to be the dominant side after that goal with Barbarouses causing all sorts of trouble for the Glory defence.
In the 25th minute the second goal came and what a stunner it was. Roy Krishna took the ball on no the edge of the box from Shane Smeltz, cut inside one defender, then launched a rocket that the outstretched Reddy had no chance of reaching.
But route one tactics got the Glory a goal in the 34th minute, with the lofted pass from Dino Djulbic finding Andrew Keogh, who chested the ball down then blasted it into the edge of the goal.
Rain fell during the halftime break, but stopped before the players came out and two minutes after the resumption Barbarouses pulled off a superb banana kick to bend the ball around Reddy and the Glory defence to reinstate the Phoenix’s two-goal lead.
That should have been game over, but it wasn’t. The Phoenix were guilty of sloppy defending over the remainder of the game and it eventually resulted in a goal to Taggart in the 66th minute, heading in a cross. That goal inspired the Glory to go for an equaliser and 10 minutes from time Diego Castro looped in a free kick from the edge of the box that Moss had no chance of reaching.