Wellington Phoenix head coach Paul Temple believes it’s vital to his side’s finals hopes to return home from Perth with three points.
The Phoenix have made the long trip to Western Australia to play the Perth Glory at the Sam Kerr Football Centre on Sunday night in the final match of round 16 of the Ninja A-League.
The Nix entered the weekend four points adrift of the top six, having lost their past three matches in Australia.
“We have to win tomorrow night,” Temple told media via zoom from Perth on Saturday. “It’s as simple as that.
“We’ve come a long way to get these points, and we don’t want to be leaving without them.
“They’re going to be vital for us in terms of the playoff push and our momentum going into the back end of the season with an international break coming up straight after this.”
Wellington have only two more trips across the Tasman this season, with five of their last seven matches at Porirua Park.
“We’re very aware that these away games now, this one Perth and then Sydney coming up in a few weeks’ time, are going to be crucial to help build that momentum.
“Although we’re very confident at home, we don’t want to rely solely on those home games to get us over the line.
“We need to be doing our bit away from home as well and I think if we can win these next few away games that’s going to put us in a really strong position and everything will be in our hands, which is what you want.”
The Phoenix beat the Glory 2-0 in their most recent meeting at Porirua Park last month and Perth have lost four of their six matches since.
“They’ve been struggling a wee bit for form. We played Brisbane a few weeks ago who were in a similar sort of boat.
“Although we had a really good performance against Brisbane, we didn’t get the result. We’ve got to try and reverse those roles.
“We’ve been getting better at producing better performances away from home and Perth is a team that we believe we can beat, and we’ll be targeting those three points.
“But in this league I don’t think anyone is an easy beat at all and I think everyone has got good ability to beat each other.
“It’s still going to be very difficult tomorrow, despite Perth’s position in the table and the fact that we beat them at home in Porirua.”
The Nix have travelled without attacking midfielder Alyssa Whinham (concussion symptoms) which will force Paul Temple to rejig his side as they look to rediscover their goalscoring touch.
“The key thing for us is decision making and execution in and around the box.
“There have been some games where we’ve scored three goals in a game and looked fantastic at this stuff and the crossing has been on point and the runs have been well-timed.
“The last three games we just haven’t had the cohesiveness in the box essentially.
“The build-up to it has very good…but ultimately when we get to that pointy end the crosses need to go into the right places, the cutbacks need to be perfect [and] the layoffs need to be right so you can run on to the ball.
“We’re talking about really tiny details that are going to make the difference.
“We need to try to set each other up and almost put it on a plate for each other a little bit more because the decision-making in the final third has probably been the thing that has let us down from scoring goals.”
And despite losing their past three matches in Australia, the Nix are “feeling really confident”.
“Off the back of the game last week against Victory the team thought that we played well enough to win and did enough to win that game.
“That was a team that’s sitting second on the table and we, especially in the first half, really pushed and dominated a team like that.
“I think we’ve got the confidence to come here and win this game.
“It’s well within our grasp but obviously we’ve got a few challenging things to work through since we arrived yesterday with the travel that’s involved in this trip and the heat particularly, but once we get on to the pitch tomorrow night it’s all about getting three points.”
The round 16 Ninja A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory is scheduled to kick-off at Sam Kerr Football Centre in Perth at 10pm (5pm AWST) Sunday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport 1 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ and 10 Play in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 4 January 2025 – Wellington Phoenix 2 Perth Glory 0
All-time A-League head to head: Phoenix 3W, Glory 4W, 0D
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted): 2. Zoe MCMEEKEN, 3. Tiana JABER, 4. Mackenzie BARRY, 5. Alivia KELLY, 6. Maya MCCUTCHEON, 7. Grace JALE, 8. Amelia ABBOTT, 9. Olivia FERGUSSON, 11. Manaia ELLIOTT, 13. Brooke NEARY (gk), 14. Mebae TANAKA, 15. Daisy BRAZENDALE, 16. Annalie LONGO (c), 17. Ela JEREZ, 19. Liv INGHAM, 20. Emma MAIN, 21. Lara WALL, 39. Carolina VILÃO (gk).
Unavailable: 10. Alyssa WHINHAM (injured), 18. Ella MCCANN (injured), 22. Aimee DANIELI (gk) (injured), 23. Rebecca LAKE (injured).
Perth Glory squad (two to be omitted): 1. Casey DUMONT (gk), 2. Mischa ANDERSON, 5. Grace JOHNSTON (subject to concussion protocols), 6. Tijan MCKENNA, 7. Megan WYNNE, 11. Natalie TATHEM, 12. Caitlin DOEGLAS, 13. Naomi CHINNAMA, 14. Miku SUNAGA, 18. Izzy FOLETTA (subject to concussion protocols), 19. Sarah O’DONOGHUE, 20. Ella ABDUL MASSIH, 21. Miranda TEMPLEMAN (gk), 22. Ischia BROOKING, 23. Izzy DALTON (co-c), 27. Charli WAINWRIGHT, 29. Onyinyechi ZOGG (co-c), 44. Kelli BROWN.
Unavailable: 8. Georgia CASSIDY (injured), 9. Gabby HOLLAR (injured), 10. Susan PHONSONGKHAM (injured), 16. Bella WALLHEAD (injured).
Main image: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
