Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano has welcomed Sarpreet Singh straight into his touring party for Friday night’s match at Western Sydney.
The All Whites attacking midfielder arrived in Wellington last week and his return, on loan for the remainder of the season, was confirmed on Waitangi Day when he was unveiled at Sky Stadium ahead of the men’s match against Melbourne Victory.
Italiano announced after training on Thursday that Singh will travel to Sydney.
“He’s been great,” Italiano told media. “He’s a top kid on and off the pitch.
“He’s a nice player and the sort of player that we’ve kind of missed over the last couple of years.
“He’s gelling really well with the other 10s, Ramy [Najjarine] and Sander [Kartum], and I’m really looking forward to seeing him on the pitch for us.”
He’ll make a call on matchday whether Singh starts or comes off the bench.
Captain Alex Rufer and forward Nikola Mileusnic also travelled to Sydney after missing the defeat to Victory with minor injuries, leaving Italiano with a near full-fit squad to pick from.
Goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi, defender Dan Edwards and young forward Nathan Walker are the only players unavailable for selection.
“We have a really healthy competition for spots. I’m able to strategize now a couple of different options and change things in-game tactically, which is something I feel is one of mine and the coaching staff’s strong points.
“Now we have players like Nikola coming back from injury and even the younger boys have now had a lot of gametime and understand their roles a lot clearer.
“The overall trend has been with a deeper squad that we’re able to influence the games late.
“It’s progressing nicely. Now we just need to convert that into results.”
Friday night’s match is the Phoenix’s last before the sixth New Zealand derby at Sky Stadium on Saturday week.
Italiano doesn’t think his side needs a good result against Wanderers before playing Auckland FC.
“I don’t think the players need motivation for the derby. There’s a lot to play for.
“We feel like we’re due a result in the derby, but the focus is just on this Friday night and picking up three points.
“If we get a win, great, but if we don’t get a win, it’s still the same 90 minutes next week.
“We just have to focus on things we can control for these 90 minutes and make sure we put in a good performance.”
The Phoenix enter the round 11th on the ladder, just four points adrift of the top six and three points above Western Sydney, who sit last.
Gary van Egmond took over as Wanderers’ interim head coach last month and they’re unbeaten in their past two matches at CommBank.
“New coach, new ideas and they’ve gone to a more structured emphasis.
“They’ve had three games for a win, a draw and a loss, and that was in a derby so it’s very understandable as it’s a different type of game.
“They’ve got a lot of dangerous players where they can punish you especially their new player they picked up, [Ryan] Fraser.
“They’ve got Kosta [Barbarouses] up top, [Aydan] Hammond has been doing really well, BK (Bozhidar Kraev) has been coming off the bench and they have [Brandon] Borrello so they’ve got a lot of goalscoring threat.
“But again if we play our game and show what we’ve been able to do since January we’ll go a long way to winning.”
Barbarouses and Kraev are two of three former Nix players in their squad, with midfielder Steven Ugarkovic the third.
“Fantastic talents all of them. They contributed to the club during their period here and I have a lot of respect for those players.
“The advantage is you understand their traits, you understand certain runs they make [and] how they position themselves in games.
“From a planning point I can work around that with the coaching staff, but at the end of the day in-game as much as you can intellectualise the whole process it really comes down to moments and whether they take them or not and how we defend them as well.
“There is a little bit of an advantage, but not significant.”
The round 17 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers is scheduled to kick-off at CommBank Stadium in Sydney at 9:35pm (7:35pm AEDT) Friday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport Select in New Zealand, and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 29 March 2025 – Wellington Phoenix 2 Western Sydney Wanderers 2
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 13W, Wanderers 15W & 8D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted): 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Manjrekar JAMES, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Ifeanyi EZE, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Sarpreet SINGH, 10. Nikola MILEUSNIC, 11. Carlo ARMIENTO, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 16. Sander KARTUM, 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 20. Ramy NAJJARINE, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 28. Bill TUILOMA, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 40. Eamonn MCCARRON (gk).
Unavailable: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk) (injured), 12. Dan EDWARDS (injured), 19. Nathan WALKER (injured).
Western Sydney Wanderers squad: 3. Alex GERSBACH, 5. Dylan SCICLUNA, 7. Ryan FRASER, 8. Steven UGARKOVIC, 9. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 11. Hiroshi IBUSUKI, 14. Philip CANCAR, 17. Jarrod CARLUCCIO, 18. Jacob FARRELL, 20. Lawrence THOMAS (gk) (c), 21. Aydan HAMMOND, 22. Anthony PANTAZOPOLOUS, 23. Bozhidar KRAEV, 25. Josh BRILLANTE, 26. Brandon BORRELLO, 30. Jordan HOLMES (gk), 32. Angus THURGATE, 38. Jai ROSE.
Main image: The Wellington Phoenix warm up for training at NZCIS on Tuesday. Photo: Priyanka Rao/Wellington Phoenix.
