Phoenix morale still high – Taylor
It’ll take more than one blow to knock the spirit out of Wellington Phoenix defender Steven Taylor.
The former Premier League player said morale remained high at training this week, even after the Phoenix were hammered 3-0 by the previously winless Western Sydney Wanderers in their worst performance of the season so far.
‘‘With this group of players that we’ve got here, we’ve got big characters and players who have relished this opportunity,’’ Taylor said yesterday.
‘‘In the first game of the season against the Newcastle Jets we didn’t get too high, we were back concentrating on the following game against Brisbane [Roar], and that’s what we do after every game; we move on to the next one.
‘‘The boys are in a positive frame of mind and you could tell by the training this morning that everyone is looking forward to the Melbourne game because it’s a massive game for us and they’ll be under a lot of pressure and they’ll have to try and take the game to us.’’
City under pressure? It was quickly pointed out to Taylor that Friday’s opposition have an identical record to the Phoenix through three games. While they too suffered a 3-0 defeat at the weekend, they have also banked four points from a win over rivals Melbourne Victory and a draw with Central Coast Mariners.
‘‘They’re a so-called big club that everyone keeps talking about. They’ve had a bad result as well so for us we’re going to go there confident and they’ll have to come at us,’’ he said.
Phoenix coach Mark Rudan has set the team up in a defensive 5-2-3 formation in each of their opening three games, and although they were solid at the back against the Jets and Roar, there were concerns the Phoenix may struggle to chase a game if they were to concede early.
While that proved to be the case on Saturday, Taylor said it was not an area of the Phoenix’s game that he was concerned about heading into their away trip to Melbourne on Friday.
‘‘We do that in training. We’ve worked on different tactics when we’re two down, three down.
‘‘We did it last week 3-0 down and came back to win 4-3 in a practice game amongst ourselves. I think that’s an excuse from the guys who haven’t played football,’’ Taylor said.