Wellington Phoenix Head Coach Mark Rudan praised the league leaders as they won 3-0 on Sunday at HBF Stadium in Perth.
David Williams was close to opening the scoring early on as his strike hit the crossbar and Rudan said that moments like that would have changed the game.
Thoughts on the match…
”Up against a very good side, clearly, that was their best side. Clearly as well because they’ve gone through 20 players, and they’re good enough to put out two good teams. Marquees, Internationals, it goes without saying. We had three regular starters out, for different reasons, so we were always going to be up against it. The plan was to get one early, David Williams hits the bar. It’s a different ball game altogether if we get that one but we don’t and we didn’t and then it was one-way traffic in that first half.”
If we did score that first goal…
“They (Perth Glory) would’ve either had to take a few more risks or continue to play their normal way, which they normally do. We were prepared for that as well. Like I said, good teams punish you and we gave away a silly free kick. There was no need for it, on the edge of the box. Our goalkeeper makes a world-class save, but from the ensuing corner, the same player doesn’t pick up his man. One nil down away from home, the crowd gets behind them. Second goal, the ball goes out and we work a lot on making sure we push out in unison. Two players stayed in their areas which allowed the rebound to fall to one of their players. Had our players done what we trained on, it would have been offside. They’re the moments and we spoke about the moments in the game that could cost you, particularly against the league leaders at home. They’re a good side, fully deserved the win today. I’ve got nothing but praise for them, I think they’re the best team in the competition and they are where they are for a reason.”
Learning from the match…
“We all have to learn, not just myself but the players in particular. We’re still learning, we’re still progressing as a football club. We’ve come on in leaps and bounds this season. I keep stressing to the players, we haven’t achieved anything yet. We need to continue to improve. You go a couple of steps forward but today I thought we took one step back. That’s disappointing but like I said we have to improve, we all have to learn from those types of scenarios and situations that occur in a game and we have to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. That’s what good teams do, and what good players do. We’ll bounce back.”
Watch the full press conference here.
