‘We need to move on from defeat’
Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay is urging his team to ‘‘move on’’ and forget Friday’s controversial A-League Men loss to Western Sydney Wanderers as they chase only their second win in the FFA Cup.
The Phoenix were yet to receive an apology when Talay spoke to the media yesterday, but he said their round of 32 clash against Western United in Geelong tonight had come at the perfect time.
‘‘The best thing about football is having a game very close,’’ Talay said. ‘‘That’s in the past, we learned from it, we know what we need to improve on.
‘‘If I look back on that game, there are times when you can say the opponent was a lot better than us and they deserved to win, but I don’t think that was the case on the weekend, and that’s the disappointing part for me.
‘‘But that’s football sometimes and we need to move on. We’ve got a game against Western United, a cup game that we want to do well in.’’
The Phoenix wrote to head of referees Nathan Magill demanding answers on Saturday after two VAR howlers saw the Wanderers snatch a dramatic 2-0 win, ending their club-record 13-game unbeaten run.
Video assistant referee Kris Griffiths-Jones failed to spot a clear foul on Callan Elliot in the lead-up to the Wanderers’ first goal when reviewing the footage to see if Tomer Hemed’s shot had crossed the goal line.
Adding insult to injury, the Phoenix thought they should have been awarded a penalty as the ball touched Hemed’s out-stretched
arm in the same sequence where Joshua Laws had a goal ruled out for offside.
It was not the first time the Phoenix had been on the wrong side of a VAR controversy.
Talay said he did not want to see games decided by poor officiating.
‘‘We all make mistakes, but for me it’s about how we can make it better,’’ Talay said. ‘‘What’s the process that the referees go through? And, at the end of the day, it’s about producing a good product and making sure those big moments in the games aren’t decided by decisions by the referees.’’
Talay will be hoping for a better effort tonight than in his first FFA Cup outing, when the Phoenix lost to Brisbane Strikers in his first game in charge in 2019.
Their only previous win in the cup came against Central Coast Mariners in 2015.
The game against Western United will be the second of three fixtures within eight days and Talay said he planned to manage the workload of his key men by giving opportunities to some younger players.
New signings Luka Prso, Nicholas Pennington and Matthew Bozinovski are among the likely changes, while Ben Waine is poised to return up front as Gary Hooper was mentioned as a player Talay felt could benefit from a rest.
Academy players Finn Surman, Jackson Manuel and Oskar van Hattum may also see game time after being brought over as cover.