Phoenix women undone by captain’s own goal
No-one took Wellington Phoenix’s 1-0 loss to early A-League Women leaders Adelaide United harder than centreback Mackenzie Barry.
The Football Fern, who finished the game with the captain’s armband, was in tears and had to be consoled by coach Natalie Lawrence after the final whistle.
It was Barry’s unfortunate own goal in the 22nd minute that decided the game as the winless Phoenix fell to their fifth consecutive defeat.
‘‘Mac (Mackenzie Barry) just wears her heart on her sleeve . . . she has incredibly high standards, and we can talk about the own goal but look how many blocks she makes, how many times she throws herself into tackles, she’s the ultimate pro,’’ Lawrence said.
‘‘As you can see, we circle around her because we want to be a family and I think we showed that today.’’
The Phoenix were more competitive than they were against Canberra United the
weekend before, without ever really troubling Adelaide goalkeeper Annalie Grove. They had six shots to Adelaide’s 18, but had more on target, shading that statistic four to three.
Adelaide hit the lead when Barry accidentally turned the ball into her own net while trying to intercept a dangerous low cross from Chelsie Dawber.
Phoenix did a better job of holding possession and building attacking phases with the returning Grace Wisnewski helping to stabilise the midfield. Their best chance fell to Wisnewski in the 15th minute, but her powerful snapshot was batted away by Grove.
The result leaves the Phoenix bottom of the table with zero points from their first five games.
They play Adelaide again in 10 days.