Head coach Chris Greenacre is seeking further improvement as the Wellington Phoenix endeavour to keep their finals hopes alive.
The Phoenix are unbeaten in their past three games under Greenacre, with back-to-back wins before the international break, to sit on the cusp of the top six with four rounds remaining.
They face their toughest test of the final month against an inform Victory side at AAMI Park in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.
The Victory are unbeaten in their past seven matches, with four wins and three draws, to be entrenched in the top four, while the Nix haven’t won an A-League match in Melbourne since 2017.
Wellington also visit Melbourne City next week and Greenacre is under no illusions of the challenge ahead of his side if they’re to remain in finals contention.
“It hasn’t changed from the moment I came into the role,” he told media after training on Thursday. “You don’t want to hear it, but I haven’t looked too far ahead.
“If we win all of our games, we still might not make the six. My philosophy for this minimal time has been literally day-by-day and that’s what we’ll continue to do.
“We’ll treat every team with the respect that they deserve. Again, we’ve seen the league this year the lack of consistency from teams.
“Hopefully on the back of a little bit of consistency from our end, we can hopefully take that in and take two positive performances against two tough Melbourne teams.”
Despite that mentality, Greenacre concedes the finals are now starting to be a more realistic prospect.
“We aspire to be there. That’s where we want to be season on, season out.
“If we’re the dark horse or the quiet team that makes it on the last day, if it takes that long then great.
“We’re certainly going to aspire to do that and while it’s mathematically possible, we’ll be doing everything we can to make that happen.”
“Momentum’s great in football, or sport in general. We want to take the momentum that we’ve built over a short period of time and we want to take that to every game we can, and if we can keep building on that then that would be incredible.”
He has declared himself happy with how the team has performed in the four matches since he took over.
“We’re starting to go in the right direction on how I want to play and we’re seeing elements of it.
“Can it improve? 100% it can and there are lots of elements for us to improve but we’re working really hard to try and do that.
“It doesn’t happen overnight, but we’re starting to see little glimpses of it and hopefully again we can step in the right direction against Melbourne Victory.”
Chris Greenacre invited fellow club legend Paul Ifill to assist at training on Thursday and plans to call upon other Phoenix alumni.
“I just think it’s really important to keep that connection with people that have been involved in the club whether that’s a staff member or a player.
“It’s great to have those kind of people around Wellington and you want to tap into everyone’s experience.
“It’s been on the cards for quite a while to bring him down. Ben Sigmund has also been in and around it as well.
“I have not seen him (Ifill) for a while, so it was good to reminisce a little bit but delighted to have him down and around.
“Those guys, they want to give back to the club. It’s their club as well.
“There’s a whole heap of other players that I’d put in that mould as well and hopefully look to try and do a little bit with those guys as well.”
The club’s most capped player and a friend of Greenacre will be in the opposing dugout on Sunday afternoon with Andrew Durante now part of the Victory coaching staff.
“There won’t be any dynamic while the game is going on.
“It’ll be great to catch up with him again…but for that 90 minutes he’s not a friend of mine.”
The round 23 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory is scheduled to kick-off at AAMI Park in Melbourne at 5pm (3pm AEST) Sunday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport 3 in New Zealand, and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 6 February 2026 – Wellington Phoenix 2 Melbourne Victory 3
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 13W, Victory 29W & 14D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted): 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Manjrekar JAMES, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Ifeanyi EZE, 8. Paulo RETRE, 10. Nikola MILEUSNIC, 11. Carlo ARMIENTO, 12. Dan EDWARDS, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 16. Sander KARTUM, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 20. Ramy NAJJARINE, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 28. Bill TUILOMA, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk).
Unavailable: 9. Sarpreet SINGH (injured), 19. Nathan WALKER (injured).
Melbourne Victory squad (two to be omitted): 2. Jason DAVIDSON, 4. Lachlan JACKSON, 5. Brendan HAMILL, 7. Reno PISCOPO, 8. Jordi VALADON, 9. Nikolaos VERGOS, 10. Denis GENREAU, 11. Clerismario SANTOS RODRIGUES, 14. Matthew GRIMALDI, 15. Sebastian ESPOSITO, 17. Nishan VELUPILLAY, 18. Franco LINO, 21. Roderick MIRANDA (c), 22. Joshua RAWLINS, 23. Keegan JELACIC, 25. Jack DUNCAN (gk), 27. Louis D’ARRIGO, 40. Jack WARSHAWSKY (gk), 44. Charles NDUKA, 64. Juan MATA.
Unavailable: 16. Joshua INSERRA (Injured), 19. Jing REEC (injured).
Main image: Tim Payne in possession during a Wellington Phoenix training session at NZCIS. Photo: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
