Fresh legs arrive at right time for Nix

The Wellington Phoenix face a big test in tough circumstances tonight, at least as far as travel and rest are concerned.

Last week they made the biggest trip of their season, via Sydney to Perth, where they lost to the Glory on Saturday night in a match that kicked off after midnight (NZ time).

Immediately after the 3-0 defeat, they flew back to Sydney, arriving at dawn on Sunday, where they had breakfast before bussing up to Newcastle, the home of the Jets, their next opponents.

Ahead of tonight’s game [kickoff 9.50pm NZT], the Phoenix sit sixth on the ladder, in the final playoff spot, eight points clear of the Jets in seventh.

In seven of the eight seasons where the A-League had 10 teams, the makeup of the top six has changed over the final 10 games, though the gap between sixth and seventh was either one point or zero in five of those seasons, as it was in 2011-12, when sixth-placed Sydney held on.

The other two were 2015-16, when seventh-placed Perth made up an eight-point gap over fifthplaced Sydney, who crashed out while sixth-placed Adelaide surged to the top, and last season, when Brisbane were six points behind Western Sydney but finished two points clear.

The Phoenix will crush the Jets’ hopes with a win tonight, which would move them 11 points clear and leave the losers nine points behind Melbourne City, who would fall to sixth but have a game in hand.

A draw would leave the gap at eight points, which would probably be enough, especially with the Jets about to embark on an Asian Champions League campaign.

If the Phoenix lose, however, the gap would be down to five points, and a playoff race would be on.

The travel they’ve done in the past week won’t help the Phoenix as they prepare, though they will be able to call on fresh legs in the form of captain Andrew Durante, who didn’t go to Perth as he was suspended.

Fellow defender Steven Taylor has had to deal with illness, which kept him out of the Perth loss, as well as the travel, but should be good to go tonight, though influential midfielder Mandi hasn’t been included in the squad after returning to Wellington from Perth as his wife was due to give birth.

While the Phoenix have flown across Australia and back, the Jets have only had short trip to Sydney, where they beat the Western Sydney Wanderers 5-1 on Friday, which means they’ve had an extra day of rest to boot.

It is one of 13 occasions this season that the Phoenix will have less time between games than their opponents, a disadvantage exacerbated this week by the relative travel of the two teams and the fact that this is a shorter turnaround than normal.

There are three occasions when the Phoenix and their opponents will have the same amount of time between games and eight when they will have more (not including the first round and the two that follow international breaks).

Coach Mark Rudan seems to be aware of the disparity, saying he was ‘‘a bit more proud’’ of his players after they overcame a shorter turnaround to hold off Melbourne City two weeks ago for the only win they’ve managed in their past four outings.

‘‘Let’s play on an even keel here, because the last two games, we weren’t, and that’s why I was a bit more proud of my players, knowing the last two games the opposition had an extra 24 hours to recover, it was a hell of a second half performance as far as I was concerned.’’

If they win tonight and cement themselves in the top six, you can bet he will be prouder still.