Nix beat Western Utd after kit drama delays kickoff
Wellington Phoenix have overcome a chaotic build-up to dispatch Western United 2-0 at Sky Stadium — cementing their spot atop the A-League Men ladder.
The match was delayed by 15 minutes after the travelling team showed up with the wrong coloured kit, forcing Phoenix kit man Jack Mapp to make a mad dash up SH2 to retrieve a different uniform from their training facility in Upper Hutt.
Mapp grabbed every player’s shirt he could remember from the matchday squad and threw them in his car, before rushing back to the stadium. He reckoned he was inside the NZ Campus of Innovation and Sport for just 60 seconds.
The Phoenix warmed up in black – the colour they were supposed to wear during the match – before swapping into yellow to avoid clashing with Western’s black and green striped outfit.
The confusion arose after the Phoenix elected to wear black, rather than yellow, even though they were the home team.
While almost every other professional sports team has designated home and away kits, the Phoenix choose to alternate between yellow and black so two principal partners, Spark and Oppo, can each be guaranteed an even share of the front-of-shirt sponsorship.
Although Mapp made it back to Sky Stadium in time for the rescheduled kickoff of 5.45pm, he was missing one important item: Bozhidar Kraev’s shirt.
Rather than his usual No. 11, Kraev had to wear a spare shirt with No. 49 on the back.
But the kit drama did not seem to faze him or his team.The competition leaders scored the opening goal after just 123
seconds when Kraev cut back for the returning Nicholas Pennington to score.
“I felt OK because I like the number four also. It brought me luck and we won – perfect,” Kraev said. “We were in the warm-up I told some of the boys, if we start well this is going to much easier and we had the perfect start and then we were smart, showed maturity and we finished very well.”
Pennington had missed Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Central Coast Mariners due to suspension – but was at the heart of both of the Phoenix’s goals.The second in the 47th minute saw his off-target header deflect off James Donachie.
Western arrived in New Zealand with a woeful goal scoring record, having found the back of the net only 13 times. With such a toothless attack, John Aloisi’s side were unable to break down a rock solid Phoenix defence that has now kept seven clean sheets – their highest since 2016-17.
Yesterday’s win saw the Phoenix open up a five-point gap at the top of the table and their nine wins from 17 matches already matches last season’s win tally with 10 rounds remaining.