Successful round for Wellington Phoenix
Points for both Phoenix teams in a double-header in Wellington in the A-League as the men went top-of-the-table and the women fought their way to a first point of the season
The men's team scored comfortable 2-0 win over the Central Coast Mariners to give the club their best ever start to an A-League season.
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Rafael Durán scored his first for the side, before Corban Piper bagged straight afterwards to seal the three points.
Head coach Chris Greenacre is delighted with the step up in performance throughout the game.
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t pleased with the performance in the first half,” he told media post-match. "
"I don’t really feel we got into our rhythm, how we can play and that was quite frustrating.
“To be fair, Mariners wanted it a lot more than we did. There were a lot of 50-50 challenges they were in front on, and we had a couple of words at halftime and tried to tweak a couple of bits.
“Delighted with the way we came out in the second half and to get two goals at home quite quickly sort of sealed it.”
And Piper’s contribution was key.
“He gets the fans off their seats, he’s a real problem, he causes mayhem to be brutally honest, and he’s really difficult to play against.
“He’s worked really hard in pre-season, we’ve tweaked and refined his game a little bit and he’s still got loads to improve.
“He’s still at a young age where there’s lots and lots of potential there and he can take the game as high as he wants to take it.”
Piper spun his man and played in Rafael Durán, who accelerated clearly before unselfishly squaring back to Piper to tap home.
A lengthy VAR check concluded that the Mexican was a shade offside initially, and the goal was ruled out.
Piper almost made up for it instantly, sprinting in behind and just failing to get a clean shot away under heavy pressure from the Mariners.
It was constant Nix pressure for the rest of the first half, but they were unable to find the right quality in the final third to take the lead.
It didn’t take long for them to produce that extra gear in the second half however.
James McGarry was played down the left and flashed a cross for the onrushing Bryce Duke, who saw his header well saved by Andrew Redmayne.
The ball was not cleared, finding its way to Matt Sheridan on the byline, who for the second consecutive week stood up a perfect cross.
Durán duly powered a header home from close range.
And the afternoon became even better when Durán was sent through by Duke, forcing Redmayne to tip wide, but only to Kazuki Nagasawa’s feet.
Nagasawa showed great presence of mind to tap back to the open Piper who had a simple finish to make it 2-0.
The men are on the road next weekend, travelling to reigning premiers Newcastle Jets to play next Saturday.
The newomen's team nearly managed to turn their game against Melbourne Victory fully around after going 1-0 down, but had to settle for a share of the spoils at Hnry Stadium.
Makala Woods bagged again, cancelling out Holly Furphy’s opening goal before a late flurry of chances nearly paid off.
She was set up by Brooke Nunn who had been threatening all afternoon, and her cutback from the right found Woods open in the box, where she finished with with expertise.
The Wellington Phoenix women have their first away trip next week, as they travel all the way to Perth to face the Glory on Sunday night.
