Crucial week at home for stuttering Phoenix
The next week will play a crucial role in how the Wellington Phoenix’s season ends up.
With three home games at Westpac Stadium, starting with the Central Coast Mariners today, the chance is there for the Phoenix to entrench themselves in the top six. Three bad results could send the season into a tailspin from which it will never recover.
Phoenix captain Andrew Durante said he recognised the importance of the week but stopped short of labelling it as seasondefining.
‘‘It won’t determine the season. It will play a big part, without doubt, they’re big games, they’re home games, we’ve had two chances over the last two weeks to jump some teams and go into fifth spot but we didn’t take it.
‘‘Now we have to take them, if we’re serious about playing in these finals then we need to take them and we won’t hide away from that.’’
The 2-1 loss to Perth Glory on January 5 snapped a four-game unbeaten run for the Phoenix, although they drew three of those games as they failed to put together a complete 90-minute performance.
Durante said the aim would be to keep the foot on the Mariners’ throat throughout Saturday’s game.
‘‘The first half against Perth was excellent. Then we start sitting back and letting teams get their rhythm and that’s what hurts us. We’ve looked at the videos and know that and it will be a different game by us. We’ll be going on the front foot against Central Coast. We’ve got to take the game to them and get the crowd involved early.’’
After the Mariners game, the Phoenix play Melbourne Victory on Tuesday (which was postponed due to earthquake damage) before their first game of the season against the Brisbane Roar the following Saturday. But the good news for co-coach Des Buckingham is that he has a fit squad to choose from, with only Roy Krishna unavailable this weekend due to suspension.
Back come the previously suspended Vince Lia, the injured Michael McGlinchey and Gui Finkler, who missed the Perth game to return to Brazil for family reasons.
McGlinchey might not be ready to start on Saturday, but could play a crucial role over the next week in his first action since November 5.
Buckingham said rest and rotation would not come into play this week, with the strongest team to be picked for each game providing everyone is fit.
As for the last-placed Mariners, they pushed the undefeated Sydney FC all the way last weekend before succumbing to a 3-2 loss. The week before that they showed good fight to hold Melbourne City to a 2-2 draw.
‘‘They deserved to get something out of their game last week, similar to us where we should have got something out of Perth,’’ Buckingham said.
‘‘They’re playing a good brand of football, but this week very much has been focused on putting our chances away, because we’re creating enough.’’
The Phoenix have the second worst goals-per-game record in the league with 14 in 13 matches. Shane Smeltz should help on that front, but Buckingham said they need contributions from around the squad.
‘‘Gui [Finkler] is the second-most prolific creator of chances in the league, so we’ve just spent the last three sessions working on our game in the front third and making sure we put those chances away.’’
The Phoenix’s reserves play Team Wellington in the curtain raiser at 4.45pm .