For all their possession, a toothless Wellington Phoenix failed to win at home in the opening round of the A-League for the third successive time, as last season’s wooden spoon getters proved to be too difficult to break down.
The Jets came away with a deserved 2-1 away win to begin this new season in the best possible way, setting them on the path to redemption and recovery from last season’s nightmare.
For this first game of the new season, the Phoenix set up in a 4-3-3, with a midfield triangle of Albert Riera and Vince Lia in the defensive-midfield positions and Roly Bonevacia at the point in attacking-midfield. Blake Powell was preferred up front over new signing Jeffrey Sarpong who was short of match fitness.
Newcastle went with a 4-2-3-1 formation, with a new-look lineup spearheaded by new striker Milos Trifunovic and propped up by returning goalkeeper Mark Birighitti.
In what was to become a theme of the match, Wellington dominated possession in the first 20 minutes. However, their myriad of attacks proved fruitless and they were punished by their inability to finish when, with the Jets set up to counter-attack, David Carney scored from a close-range header following Lee Ki-je’s cross from the right.
With Phoenix captain Durante substituted in the 26th minute due to injury, the Nix will be worried about their defensive options whose frailties were exposed in this match as they leaked close-range goals in both halves.
The Phoenix then had a Jekyll and Hyde moment minutes before and after the break. The Dr Jekyll moment was Bonevacia’s cool finish following Michael McGlinchey’s cut-back seconds before the half time whistle. Mr Hyde came with Krishna’s penalty miss right after the break, as Birighitti guessed right and gratefully accepted Krishna’s gift, diving low to his right to palm the ball around his right-hand post, as Krishna held his head in his hands.
Once Krishna had missed, the momentum went in favour of the visitors, and they duly made the Phoenix pay, with Milos Trifunovic getting the winner in the 70th minute, following up Carney’s cross to dispatch past a despairing Glen Moss in the Phoenix goal. Despite Nigel Boogaard’s red card on 80 minutes following two yellow cards for petulant fouls, Newcastle held on to snap their Cake Tin jinx.
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