Barry has answers to Phoenix’s problems

Mackenzie Barry might get the chance to assist Football Ferns veteran Hannah Wilkinson again in the future.

But she wasn’t supposed to on Sunday, when she didn’t get enough on her header back to Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Lily Alfeld and allowed the Melbourne City striker to pounce on the ball and score.

Wilkinson’s goal was the second of four City put past the Phoenix as they suffered their fifth loss in a row in their inaugural A-League Women campaign.

And it came from the kind of error the young side knows it needs to cut out.

‘‘A lot of the goals have come from either personal errors or set plays,’’ said Barry, 20, who has started at centre back alongside vice-captain Kate Taylor in all six of the Phoenix’s matches.

‘‘[At set plays], we concede a bit, and I just think that comes from the other teams being just so wellpractised in those areas. They’re very clinical and they take those opportunities.’’

Barry was quick to put her hand up and acknowledge the error that led to Wilkinson’s goal, and she said that while they had suffered five defeats in a row, there was still a positive mood within the Phoenix squad, which was hastilyassembled ahead of the club’s first season in A-League Women.

‘‘Since we are improving each game, we try not to look too much into the score. Obviously to a certain extent we need to be like looking at the goals and learning from them, but I think for us, it’s always progress.’’

The Phoenix are now done with matches against City and Sydney FC, who have established themselves as the teams to beat.

They are two of three teams in A-League Women with a positive goal difference. The other is the Newcastle Jets, who the Phoenix have also played twice, which suggests there will be opportunities there for the taking in the weeks ahead.

Their next opponents, the Brisbane Roar, have conceded 12 goals in six matches and only won once, coming from 2-0 down to notch a 4-2 win over a Melbourne Victory side that had a player sent off with the score 2-1 earlier this month.

‘‘I definitely think we’ve played a couple of the stronger teams in the league, and we’ve come up against some experienced players and some Matildas,’’ Barry said.

‘‘Looking forward, I think we’ve got a couple of games that we could potentially take three points or a draw from hopefully, against some of the teams that don’t have as many of those sorts of players.

‘‘Our next game against Brisbane will be interesting and then Perth as well. We need to start focusing on how they play and what we can do to get some results.’’