Senior players need to step up for Phoenix
The Wellington Phoenix have enough quality left in the squad to match it with the Newcastle Jets tomorrow.
Whether those senior players step up is a different matter.
In the 3-1 loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers last weekend many of them went missing for large parts of the match, which cannot happen in the do-or-die match against the Jets.
The team have lost Glen Moss, Andrew Durante, Tom Doyle, Alex Rufer, Michael McGlinchey and Shane Smeltz to All Whites duty, and Roy Krishna to Fiji, meaning there might be spots on the bench for the likes of teenagers Sarpreet Singh, Logan Rogerson and JackHenry Sinclair.
But they still have senior players such as Vince Lia, Marco Rossi, Kosta Barbarouses and Gui Finkler available.
Finkler said it would be up them to lift the younger players around them.
‘‘Whoever is more experienced on the pitch should be pushing the young boys, but I think we’ve got some great leaders in the club and on Sunday we have to have 11 leaders on the pitch.’’
The preparation for this game extended to beyond just this week as they knew they would be losing Hyundai A-League, round 24 Westpac Stadium, Wellington, tomorrow 7pm Phoenix $2.50, Newcastle $2.60, draw $3.45 Roly Bonevacia, Ryan Lowry, Dylan Fox, Gui Finkler, Alex Rodriguez, Kosta Barbarouses, Hamish Watson, Adam Parkhouse, Marco Rossi, Vince Lia (c), Lewis Italiano, Matthew Ridenton, Logan Rogerson, Sarpreet Singh, Jack-Henry Sinclair, Liam Wood, Oliver Whyte, Oliver Sail (gk) (two to be omitted). Daniel Mullen, Jason Hoffman, Nigel Boogaard (c), Ben Kantarovski, Steven Ugarkovic, Andrew Hoole, Mateo Poljak, Aleksandr Kokko, Wayne Brown, Ivan Vujica, Andrew Nabbout, Ma Leilei, Morten Nordstrand, Jack Duncan, Lachlan Jackson, John Koutroumbis, Joel Allwright, Tomislav Arcaba so many players when the All Whites squad was announced on March 9.
‘‘We knew this was going to happen from the beginning, everyone is prepared for this game and whoever is going to be on the pitch Sunday will have to bounce back from the game we played in Sydney.’’
The Phoenix and Jets both need a win on Sunday to have any hope of catching the sixth-placed Wanderers and making the finals.