Wellington Phoenix men fall in final game of season
- 28 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The Wellington Phoenix’s A-League season has ended with a disappointing result beaten 4-0 by Macarthur FC at Campbelltown Sports Stadium in Sydney after trailing 3-0 at halftime.
It’s Wellington’s second biggest defeat of the season and heaviest since Chris Greenacre took over as head coach.
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The result means the Nix will finish no higher than eighth on the ladder.
Chris Greenacre made two changes to the XI which started Saturday’s 2-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers in Christchurch with Fin Roa Conchie and Sander Kartum replacing the suspended Alex Rufer and Ramy Najjarine respectively. Kazuki Nagasawa led the Phoenix in Rufer’s absence.
All Whites midfielder Sarpreet Singh was named in the substitutes 10 weeks after suffering a knee injury on his much anticipated return to the Nix.
The first half was one to forget for the Phoenix.
Macarthur took the lead little after five minutes into the game as a result of a mix up at the back which saw a long-range effort from Matthew Jurman deflect off Bill Tuiloma and into the back of the net.
The Bulls doubled their advantage midway through the half when a right wing cross fell favourably to the feet of midfielder Dean Bosnjak on the edge of the six yard box and he slotted home.
Ifeanyi Eze had Wellington’s first goalscoring opportunity in the 25th minute when he got on the end of a defence-splitting through ball, but he saw his effort deflect wide of the left post.
Luke Brattan made it 3-0 to Macarthur nine minutes later, picking out the top left corner of the Phoenix goal with a quality finish after being given space and time outside the penalty area.
Paulo Retre came close to delivering the Nix an near immediate response but his powerful effort from distance rose just over the Bulls’ goal.
Greenacre made a double change at halftime, bringing on Najjarine and Luke Brooke-Smith in place of Sander Kartum and Roa Conchie respectively.
The substitutes, particularly Brooke-Smith, had an impact with the Phoenix having a great share of possession and looking more dangerous with the ball.
However they weren’t able to test Alexander Robinson in Macarthur’s goal in the first 15 minutes of the second half and Oluwayemi made the first save after halftime, denying Vickery from a tight angle around the hour mark.
Brooke-Smith was denied from close range by Robinson midway through the second half after Corban Piper nodded a Najjarine cross back across goal.
Greenacre made another double change soon after with Singh and Matt Sheridan replacing Nagasawa and Tim Payne respectively.
Piper had a chance to pull a goal back for the Nix in the 76th minute but he dragged his left-footed shot across goal.
Macarthur instead added a fourth soon after courtesy of a big deflection which looped over Oluwayemi and into the back of the net.
Singh came closest to getting the Nix on the scoresheet in the final minute of normal time when he rattled the crossbar from a free kick after Eze had been fouled on the edge of the Bulls’ penalty area.
Robinson also made a good save in the third and final minute of stoppage time to push away a shot from Eze before some last ditch Macarthur defence denied Brooke-Smith from close-range and secured a rare clean sheet.