Phoenix coach defends Krishna after miss

Coach Mark Rudan leapt to a ‘‘disappointed’’ Roy Krishna’s defence after his 87th minute penalty miss cost Wellington Phoenix victory at Newcastle.

The Phoenix maintained their eight-point advantage over Newcastle Jets after the two teams played out a 1-1 draw at McDonald Jones Stadium on Thursday night, with stand-in goalkeeper Oli Sail playing a prominent role.

However, the Phoenix blew a golden opportunity to extend that buffer to 11 points after Krishna failed to convert from the penalty spot, shooting straight down the middle and at the feet of the club’s former keeper Glen Moss.

The Phoenix won the penalty when Louis Fenton was clipped by Ben Kantarovski at the top of the 18 yard box. Although Krishna has found the back of the net 11 times this season, he has a poor record from the penalty spot. His miss against the Jets was his seventh unsuccessful penalty in 14 attempts.

Rudan has previously stated that he has no desire to take the responsibility off Krishna.

‘‘When you get a penalty with a couple of minutes to go you expect to score,’’ Rudan said. ‘‘But similar to the game against Sydney FC [when Krishna’s penalty was also saved], Roy has done ever so well for us this year, he has scored a lot of goals for us, won us games and points, and he’s pretty disappointed as we all are because they fought extremely hard to get us a result.’’

Both goalkeepers played key roles in the game, with back-up Phoenix shotstopper Sail making the most of his rare start.

Thrust into action after firstchoice goalkeeper Filip Kurto was ruled out with illness during the warm-up, Sail produced a series of brilliant saves to deny the Jets on multiple occasions throughout the second half.

His best efforts came when he tipped away two shots from Dimi Petratos, with Roy O’Donovan also striking the post in the same sequence.

‘‘Oli Sail was sensational. He did it again against Sydney FC, that great result in Sydney where we won 3-0. We had Oli Sail in goal in that game and he made a couple of good saves and he was outstanding again today.’’

He was beaten in the 33rd minute though. Jets midfielder Ronald Vargas darted in between Steven Taylor and Andrew Durante before cutting back on to his left foot and drilling a shot past Sail at the near post.

The Phoenix blew multiple chances earlier in the game after dominating the opening half an hour.

Fenton blazed high with his first touch from inside the six yard box when the initial shot from Mandi struck the frame of the goal and landed at the feet of the unmarked defender. However, he did not have long to react. They went close again when David Williams sent a header towards the near post. However, Moss managed to get his fingertips to the ball.

Liberato Cacace also had a shot superbly saved. But the Phoenix eventually found a way past Moss, with Williams latching onto a square ball from Fenton and curling a shot into the bottom left corner for his sixth goal of the season.

While eight points is still a sizeable advantage with nine games to go, the Phoenix could have taken a major step towards the playoffs had Krishna converted from the spot.

‘‘That’s the a big gap, knowing that they’re in the ACL [Asian Champions League] now as well,’’ Rudan said. ‘‘Obviously we wanted to win the game and could have done so easily, but I think from a mentality point of view it’s a huge result as far as we’re concerned because eight points is a lot to catch up. We have a better goal difference as well, so you could almost add a point on there.’’

‘‘Roy has . . . scored a lot of goals for us, won us games and points.’’ Mark Rudan on Roy Krishna

(David Williams 58’) (Ronald Vargas 33’). HT: 0-1.

Wellington Phoenix 1 Newcastle Jets 1