Jeremy Brockie’s rich vein of form on Wellington Phoenix’s Indian tour continued yesterday.
Jeremy Brockie-s rich vein of form on Wellington Phoenix-s Indian tour continued yesterday.
Brockie followed up his four goals against Shillong Lajong by netting a hat-trick as the Phoenix beat the Royal Wahingdoh Sports Club 3-0 in Shillong.
With seven goals in two games Brockie is showing the form that made Phoenix head coach Ricki Herbert pursue him in the off season, and Herbert will be hoping he can continue bagging them in when the Hyundai A League starts.
It was the Phoenix- third game in six days and it showed in the first half when it took them a while to get into their stride. Coming to terms with the artificial pitch was also difficult.
Brockie raised his team-s spirits in the 27th minute when a lovely ball from Alex Smith set him free and the free-scoring striker coolly lifted the ball over the advancing keeper.
From that point the Phoneix were always in control and in the second half found some of the rhythm they had showed in the first two games of the tour.
Brockie made it 2-0 30 seconds into the second spell and looked to have completed his hat-trick shortly afterward when he volleyed the ball home only to have it ruled out, wrongly, for offside.
Chances came and went with Academy player Louis Fenton again in tremendous form, but it wasn-t till stoppage time that Brockie completed the scoring from the penalty spot after Fenton had been brought down.
Herbert rang the changes again in the second half and when the final whistle went the Phoenix had seven under-21 players on the pitch.
“The goals keep coming for Brocks and they aren-t tap ins either,” Herbert said.
“The timing of his runs is first-class and he has been assisted by some fine delivery.
“Our level was down a little with it being our third game in six days, but we managed to control the tempo of the game and kept the momentum going when needed.
“We emptied the bench again and the young players are going to benefit a lot from playing in these games.
“We are slowly building an understanding with the younger players at the club and need to keep working on every aspect of our game.”
Wellington Phoenix: Glen Moss(Scott Basalaj 75m), Leo Bertos, Alec Solomon (Michael Boxall 65m), Andrew Durante (captain), Tony Lochhead (Luke Rowe 58m), Cameron Lindsay, Benji Totori (Tom Biss 65m), Alex Smith (Tom Doyle 58m), Louis Fenton, Tyler Boyd, Jeremy Brockie.
