Phoenix coach remains confident despite goalless draw
Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay is refusing to give up on his team’s chances of playing finals football.
That is despite missing a chance to jump back into the A-League top six after playing out a 0-0 draw with Brisbane Roar, the team directly above them on the table, in terribly wet conditions on Saturday night.
Talay slammed the state of the waterlogged pitch at Moreton Daily Stadium in Redcliffe after heavy rain throughout the day created surface flooding and stifled the Phoenix’s ability to play freeflowing football.
It took them 55 minutes to register a shot on target but David Ball, Ulises Davila and Reno Piscopo all forced saves out of Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young in the final 10 after the arrival of Jaushua Sotirio swung the momentum in the
Phoenix’s favour.
In-form striker Ben Waine was unable to become the first player in club history to score in five consecutive games. He was replaced by Sotirio at halftime after making seven touches without getting off a single shot.
‘‘I think the pitch was terrible, to be honest. It levelled the playing field for Brisbane,’’ Talay said.
‘‘It suited them probably more than it suited us because we’re a footballing team, we want to play a certain brand of football and I think the pitch levelled the game for them.’’
Despite the draw, Talay refused to label the result as a setback and said he firmly believed the race for the top six remained wide open, especially after Western Sydney Wanderers upset Sydney FC in the following match on Saturday to move level on points with Western United, who occupy sixth spot.
There are now five points separating Sydney in second and the Phoenix in ninth. Both have played 20 games, as have Macarthur, who are three points ahead of the Phoenix in fifth. Western United and Brisbane Roar have at least two games in hand.
‘‘There’s three points difference with Macarthur at the moment and we’re on the same amount of games. There’s enough games [to be played] so I think it’s going to come right down to the end this season to determine the top six,’’ Talay said.
‘‘I can’t be disappointed with the performance they put on, the players. But at the end of the day we’ve come away to Brisbane and one point is one point.’’
The Phoenix will be without Cameron Devlin and Louis Fenton for Friday’s trip to Adelaide United after both players received their fifth yellow cards of the season to earn an automatic one-game suspension.