A late Vince Lia strike propelled Wellington to a 2-1 win in a sea-sawing contest at nib Stadium on Sunday.
The Glory were looking to make up for their disappointing away loss to the Central Coast Mariners by returning to relative home comforts at nib Stadium against a Phoenix side coming off an equally damaging home loss to the Jets.
A helter-skelter first 10 minutes where defences were non-existent and attacks were end-to-end culminated in two goals, one to either team, in the first 10 minutes and it was Perth who took the lead. From their first corner of the match, sloppy defence from the Nix gave Gyorgy Sandor an opportunity in the box, and he smashed home a half-volley to open the scoring with the Perth’s first clear-cut chance. It took the Phoenix less than two minutes to respond, however, as Michael McGlinchey released Roy Krishna. The Fijian speedster held off veteran Michael Thwaite and dropped his shoulder to finish with finesse in the bottom left corner.
The first half came to an end with the Glory in the ascendancy, but an opening stanza that promised an entire half of goals galore never materialised in the final 30 minutes.
The Phoenix began the second half continuing to create chances but lacking a finishing touch, as the Glory showed their aerial dominance but lacked creativity from open play in the final third. By 65 minutes the game had gone from thrust and counter-thrust excitement to a midfield battle punctuated by moments of desperation and long clearances by scrambling defences.
The game became the expected tug-of-war between two of round one’s losing teams who were desperate to win but could not afford to lose. Richard Garcia was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence and the Phoenix took full advantage, as Vince Lia scored a collector’s item from a corner.
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