A disappointing end to a disappointing season for the Wellington Phoenix men.
The bottom of the table Perth Glory have beaten the Phoenix 2-0 in their final round Isuzu UTE A-League match at Sky Stadium, with Socceroos striker Adam Taggart scoring a brace.
The result means the Phoenix finish 11th on the ladder and will face Brisbane Roar in an Australia Cup playoff in Darwin later this month.
Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano was a frustrated figure after the final whistle as he reflected on the team’s 14th defeat of the season.
“Disappointed is probably an understatement,” Italiano told media post-match. “It’s the only word I can think of at the moment.
“The game summed up our whole season. I thought we had good parts in today’s game, we could have capitalised, we just didn’t, and then we got punished a couple of times for poor defending.
“It’s been a running theme in our games this year, just one moment where we don’t execute what we need to or we make a simple mistake and get punished.
“We had some good opportunities to score and get back into the game, we just couldn’t hit the back of the net.”
Sunday night’s defeat followed a 1-0 loss at second-to-bottom Brisbane last week.
“I think what we’ve missed probably over the last couple of months is real belief in terms of building results.
“It’s been characteristic that when we’ve lost, we’ve lost three or four on the run.
“It’s taken us a long time to build that sort of resilience, that’s been the disappointing thing.
“I don’t go away from games thinking we’ve been completely dominated, we’re just slightly under the level of the opposition.”
Giancarlo Italiano made two changes to the XI which started last weekend’s defeat, with young forward Luke Brooke-Smith and Japanese midfielder Kazuki Nagasawa replacing injured All Whites fullback Tim Payne and versatile defender Matt Sheridan. There were three inclusions on the bench with 17-year-olds Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues and Eamonn McCarron and young striker Luke Supyk coming into the matchday squad.
The Phoenix made a promising start with Brooke-Smith and Kosta Barbarouses finding some space in behind the Glory defence inside the first five minutes, but they weren’t able to test Oli Sail in Perth’s goal.
The visitors had a good spell for the next quarter of an hour with Glory midfielders Luke Amos and Jaylan Pearman both having a couple of shots at goal.
Amos’ first effort was straight at Josh Oluwayemi and his second whistled into the side-netting.
Oluwayemi denied Pearman one-on-one in the 10th minute and made a sharp save to keep out a long-range shot nine minutes later.
Hideki Ishige registered Wellington’s first shot in between the two Pearman attempts after a neat one-two with Nagasawa on the edge of the Glory box, but Ishige sliced his effort wide.
The Nix had their best period midway through the half but weren’t able to threaten Sail’s goal. A speculative 25-yard effort from Barbarouses which sailed well wide in the 30th minute was the closest they got.
Soon after Adam Taggart put the Glory in front when he cut inside his defender and slotted past Oluwayemi. There was a lengthy delay before the goal was confirmed but the Video Assistant Referee eventually deemed the Socceroos forward was narrowly onside.
Pearman thought he had doubled Perth’s lead in the 39th minute but after another long VAR intervention the goal was disallowed as Trent Ostler was clearly offside in the lead-up.
The Phoenix created an opportunity to equalise with a well-worked counter-attack shortly before halftime but Nagasawa skied his shot from just outside the box.
It was to be his last involvement as he was replaced at halftime by Matt Sheridan.
The Glory started the second half the better of the two sides and Italiano responded by making a triple change shortly after the hour mark, bringing on Paulo Retre, Nathan Walker and Sloane-Rodrigues in place of Lukas Kelly-Heald, Ishige and Brooke-Smith respectively.
One of Retre’s first touches was a shot after he found some space outside the Perth penalty area, but his effort rose over Sail’s crossbar.
Barbarouses and Walker both found the back of the net after the clock ticked over 70 minutes and the Yellow Fever playfully celebrated, but the whistle had been blown several seconds before both shots were taken.
Kosta Barbarouses had a great chance to equalise in the 79th minute when Corban Piper nodded down a cross to him in the Perth penalty area. But unfortunately for Barbarouses and the Nix his effort went narrowly wide of the right-hand post.
Barbarouses continued to lead the line in an attempt to find a leveller and he almost caught out Oli Sail five minutes later when his cross-come-shot was just tipped over the crossbar by his All Whites’ teammate.
Sam Sutton skied a volley from the top left-hand side of the Glory box soon after and it increasingly looked like it was going to be Perth’s night.
Josh Oluwayemi made another great save to deny Glory substitute Khoa Ngo in the 87th minute to keep Wellington in the match but there was nothing he could to in time added on, when Taggart scored his second to seal all three points.
Both the Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory will now turn their attentions to Darwin where they will playoff against Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners respectively for a place in the Australia Cup.
Wellington Phoenix: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 9. Hideki ISHIGE (41. Nathan WALKER 64th), 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD (8. Paulo RETRE 64th), 19. Sam SUTTON, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA (27. Matthew SHERIDAN 46th), 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH (17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES 64th).
Unused substitutes: 40. Eamonn MCCARRON (gk), 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 23. Luke SUPYK.
Perth Glory: 1. Oli SAIL (gk), 10. Nikola MILEUSNIC (35. Seb DESPOTOVSKI 90+3), 17. Yuto MISAO (26. Khoa NGO 82nd), 20. Trent OSTLER, 21. Luke AMOS (6. Brandon O’NEILL 75th), 22. Adam TAGGART (c), 25. Jaylan PEARMAN, 27. Will FRENEY (16. Adam BUGARIJA 82nd), 28. Kaelen MAJEKODUNMI, 29. Tomi MRCELA, 36. Takuya OKAMOTO.
Unused substitutes: 13. Cameron COOK (gk), 4. Tass MOURDOUKOUTAS, 12. Taras GOMULKA.
Goals:
22. Adam TAGGART (Perth Glory) – 34th & 90+2
Cards:
21. Luke AMOS (Perth Glory) – yellow – 57th
8. Paulo RETRE (Wellington Phoenix) – yellow – 90+4
