Mariners spoil Nix’s party
Central Coast Mariners crashed Wellington Phoenix’s homecoming party, handing Ufuk Talay’s team a 4-0 defeat in its first game on New Zealand soil in almost a year.
A bumper crowd of 18,184 packed into Sky Stadium yesterday – the third-biggest crowd across the A-League Men this season – to welcome the Phoenix back in action, but the game did not go to script.
The Phoenix were unable to rise to the occasion, suffering their second heavy defeat against the Mariners in as many weeks after they were destroyed 5-0 only 12 days earlier.
The Mariners punished the Phoenix for their misses, with two of their goals coming right after the home side failed to put away its best chances of the game.
Beni Nkololo scored in the 26th minute, burying his shot past Oli Sail and into the bottom right corner after being slipped through by Nicolai Muller to give the Mariners the lead against the run of play.
The goal came after the Phoenix fashioned their best chance of the first half with David Ball stinging the gloves of Mark Birighitti after making an interception on halfway.
The Phoenix were perhaps lucky they did not lose Ball to a red card in the first half after he was cautioned with only a yellow after catching Kye Rowles on the ankle with his studs when lunging in to win a loose ball.
Jason Cummings doubled the Mariners’ advantage in the 62nd minute, heading home from a rebound after the initial effort from Moresche hit the post.
That goal also followed a Phoenix miss, with Ball steering a header wide from close range after rising high to meet a wonderful cross from Gael Sandoval.
Moresche added a third three minutes later with a tidy finish, picking out the bottom right corner after Storm Roux’s cross lofted over the Phoenix defence.
The Phoenix made a roaring start to the game, Jaushua Sotirio blazed wide from the opening sequence while Finn Surman flashed a header wide from a corner kick.
The Phoenix lined up in a 3-4-3 formation in the first half with Louis Fenton coming in to replace the injured Callan Elliot at right wing-back, but they switched to a 4-2-2-2 in the second half with Tim Payne pushing into central midfield as they chased the game.
The Phoenix pushed hard for a late goal to give the crowd something to cheer about but Ben Waine and Ben Old had no end product after making breaks down