‘It can’t be roses all the time’: Phoenix have their lead cut

The Wellington Phoenix’s unbeaten run has come to a crashing halt in the A-league after a 1-nil loss to midtable Melbourne City.

Melbourne’s three-time premiers beat the Phoenix in stifling heat in the Victorian capital, ending Wellington’s 10-match unbeaten run.

The Phoenix lead the competition by three points but the secondplaced Central Coast Mariners had the chance to join the Wellington side at the top if they were able to win their match against Macarthur yesterday.

Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano was far from downcast after the game which offered plenty of chances for both sides.

“It’s unrealistic to think you can win every game,” Italiano said.

“This is a good lesson for us that if we play like that now for the rest of the season that’s not going to be enough.”

And he admitted his side historically found Melbourne a difficult place to play.

“Every time we’ve come here, we always struggle to get a result,” he said.

“I thought we had some good patches in the game. I think they probably had some better chances

. . . but in the end they probably deserved to win.

“Defeat is a really good thing in terms of any team wanting to progress. It can’t be all roses all the time. There needs to be some fall in order to hit the heights.”

Italiano made just one change to the XI which started the 3-2 win over Adelaide United, with top goal scorer Kosta Barbarouses replacing Mo Altaay. Fit-again midfielder Nicholas Pennington and teenager Gabriel Sloane-rodrigues were brought on to the bench.

City had the better of the early possession and had three shots on goal in the first 10 minutes but none of them threatened Alex Paulsen’s goal.

Paulsen was tested soon after and made a superb point blank save to keep out a header from young City forward Max Caputo.

He snuffed out another opportunity for Caputo in the 26th minute with help from Phoenix centre back Finn Surman.

Barbarouses registered the first shot on target in the 10th minute when his half-volley bounced kindly into the arms of City goalkeeper Jamie Young.

The Nix were otherwise unable to test Young in the first half, with their limited shots either blocked or wide of goal. Ben Old came closest in the 41st minute when he blazed narrowly over the bar from a tight angle.

The second half started in a similar fashion with City continuing to create the majority of the goalscoring chances, and Paulsen made a comfortable save at his near post in the 57th minute to keep out a shot from Vicente Fernandez.

Samuel Souprayen finally broke the deadlock moments later, heading home a well-worked short corner at the back post.

Italiano brought on Al-taay, Pennington and Sam Sutton in the second half as the Phoenix pressed for an equaliser, and they started to create more viable scoring opportunities.

Their best chance fell to Barbarouses in the 81st minute. Bozhidar Kraev slipped the veteran forward in behind the hosts’ defence with a perfectly weighted pass, but Barbarouses put his shot wide of the right-hand post.

The Wellington Phoenix play Sydney FC at Eden Park on Saturday. ● On Friday night, the Phoenix Women turned in one of their best performances to beat Perth Glory 3-1 in Perth.

That result moved the Wellington side up to ninth, just two points off sixth in the standings.