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Wellington Thrash Champions In Gosford
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix bounced back to winning ways in the Isuzu Ute A-League on November 10 by thrashing reigning champions Central Coast Mariners 3-0 in front of 6,493 fans at the Industree Group Stadium.
The visitors, playing with a strong wind at their backs - which, given Wellington's reputation as the wind capital of the world, effectively nullified the home advantage - fired their first shot in anger inside the opening sixty seconds, Kazuki Nagasawa unleashing a twenty-five yarder which drew a smothering save from Dylan Peraic-Cullen.
Central Coast took a further ten minutes to muster a response, a cross from Lucas Mauragis which prompted a timely headed clearance from Scott Wootton, otherwise Ryan Edmondson would have opened the scoring.
That honour fell to Hideki Ishige on the quarter hour. Tim Payne had already squandered a shooting chance from a free-kick from similar distance, so this time round, Ishige took charge of proceedings, and banged home a beauty from every inch of thirty yards, the ball screaming past both the wall and Peraic-Cullen to the delight of the Wellington supporters in the ground.
The title-holders wasted little time in looking to respond, producing a super five-man move just three minutes after the goal, culminating in Edmondson's lay-off to Sasha Kuzevski, who steered his shot towards the far corner of the net.
Josh Oluwayemi plunged to his right to parry the ball to safety, and smothered a twenty-yarder from Vitor Feijao nine minutes later, either side of which Central Coast sent the ball soaring over the bar, Feijao and Mikael Doka the guilty parties.
By the time the home team next tested Oluwayemi - Doka drilled a twenty-yarder straight at him in the 43rd minute, Wellington had doubled their lead. Wootton and Nagasawa combined to send Ishige spearing through the inside left channel, and he charged into the area before slipping the ball across for Costa Barbarouses to slide home from close range, a goal confirmed by the Video Assistant Referee after it had initially been flagged offside in the 38th minute.
Central Coast had to score next if they harboured any hopes of getting something from the match, and Alfie McCalmont's curling twenty-five yarder four minutes after half-time, an effort which cleared the crossbar, signalled their intentions.
But Wellington responded with a points-clinching third goal, four minutes later. Alex Rufer combined with Barbarouses and Ishige to send Sam Sutton storming through the defence to steer home the goal which put the visitors well over the horizon - 3-0, game over.
The reigning champions never gave up, but Wellington's pragmatic style of play - entertaining football certainly isn't their forte - proved impregnable on this occasion. Oluwayemi kept out Nathan Paull's headed effort from a 56th minute corner, and promptly sparked a counter-attack in which Barbarouses beat a couple of opponents inside his own half before releasing Payne down the right, from where his cross sizzled across Nagasawa's bows.
Wellington threatened again in the 63rd minute, the combined efforts of Paull and Kuzevski necessary to prevent Barbarouses from capitalising on Nagasawa's pass. The visitors mustered just one more threat on goal in the time remaining, with Peraic-Cullen blocking at close quarters from Stefan Colokovski fifteen minutes from time.
Otherwise, it was a case of Central Coast trying to get back into the match, only to find their efforts being constantly rebuffed by Wellington's rearguard. Bailey Brandtman sent a shot narrowly over the bar from fifteen yards in the 72nd minute, then saw Oluwayemi block his low drive two minutes later.
Wellington's goalkeeper smothered another effort from distance from Brandtman ten minutes from time, before diving to his left to keep out an Alou Kuol header two minutes later. The goalkeeper was right behind another twenty-yarder, this time fired by Doka in stoppage time, having looked on minutes earlier as Isaac Hughes diverted the ball past his own post under pressure from Kuol moments beforehand.
The win takes Wellington back into the top four, but it has to be said, they're a very hard watch. Central Coast, on the other hand, have yet to record a win in their opening four matches, this their first defeat in that time. They need to rediscover the art of scoring goals, however - just one in 360 minutes of football tells its own story.
Central Coast: Peraic-Cullen; Herrington (Ngor, 46), Kaltak, Paull; Kuzevski (booked, 6 (Roux, 83)), Doka (booked, 45), Steele (Eames, 67), McCalmont (booked, 45), Mauragis; Edmondson (Brandtman, 67), Feijao (Kuol, 46)
Wellington: Oluwayemi; Payne, Hughes, Wootton, Sutton (booked, 34); Sheridan (Walker, 60), Retre (Al-Taay, 60), Rufer, Nagasawa (booked, 58); Barbarouses (Colakovski, 69), Ishige
Referee: Alex King
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