The curtain comes down on the Wellington Phoenix’s home campaign for the 2024 National League.
Fraser Park hosted a double header in the penultimate round of the competition, with the women’s reserves beginning the afternoon against Western Springs.
A compact performance saw them go into the break 1-0 up, courtesy of Mackenzie Bryant’s close control and strong finish in first half injury time.
However, despite hitting the woodwork three times, the Phoenix were unable to hang onto the lead, and ended up losing 4-1 to the Kate Sheppard Cup finalists.
The next match saw the men’s reserves take on reigning Chatham Cup winners Wellington Olympic.
Olympic took the lead after half an hour, but Ryan Watson hit back just two minutes later when the ball fell kindly to him in the area.
It remained deadlocked until the 77th minute, when Lewis Partridge produced a bullet that found the top right corner.
Watson added his second after a clinical counter attack almost immediately afterwards to secure the points for the Nix, and in turn eliminate the defending champions from grand final contention.
Earlier in the day, the Phoenix U-17 girls’ side had beaten Western Springs 4-1 in the youth National League, led by an Isabella Temple hattrick.
Having secured the title last week, the Nix were awarded the trophy post-game, capping off a season where they were only beaten once.
Main image: Ryan Imray/Imray’s Snaps
