Wellington Phoenix and Central Coast Mariners battled out a largely uninspiring 0-0 draw in front of 6,928 fans at Westpac Stadium on September 14, in their fourth round Hyundai A-League clash. In a fixture fairly bereft of imaginative, entertaining football, the vast majority of what few chances came about were generated by the visitors, with the first materialising in the third minute. Matthew Osman's cross from the right was met by Sasho Petrovski's diving header, which Glen Moss needed two attempts to save at his near post. Sixteen minutes later, Moss went one better - a triple save which denied Mile Jedinak's free-kick, and the attempts of both Matt Simon and Petrovski to turn home the rebound. The Wellington 'keeper's string of saves ensured he was easily the game's star turn, while keeping his side in contention for a point. Four minutes before half-time, he tipped the ball round the post to thwart Osman, after he had combined with Andrew Clark down the right, the overlapping fullback having recovered well after being clattered by Richard Johnson in the fifth minute of a match which had more than its fair share of niggle and nonsense. Moss was beaten in the 43rd minute, as Petrovski dashed down the left before cutting inside and unleashing a curling effort towards the target. It crept agonisingly past the far post from a Mariners' perspective, but not so from Wellington's, given the home team was keen to get any kind of favourable result from this match after having earned themselves much (deserved) criticism for their most recent efforts. This was on a par with those performances - certainly no better! Indeed, they mustered just one opportunity of note in the first half, which culminated in MB - no, not Mr Blobby but Mark Bosnich - belying his advancing years to race out of his penalty area and head clear before a comparative youngster in Vaughan Coveny could make the most of the chance. Twice inside the first fifteen minutes of the second spell, John Hutchinson went down in Wellington's penalty area. The Central Coast midfielder was guilty of simulation on the first occasion, and was dutifully booked by referee Strebre Delovski, who

ignored far stronger claims for a spot-kick second time round when Hutchinson was brought to earth not of his own accord. Wellington, who had seen Andrew Durante head a Daniel free-kick over the bar in the 54th minute, went desperately close to breaking the deadlock eight minutes later. An almighty goalmouth scramble, featuring Shane Smeltz and Mariners defenders aplenty, culminated in Troy Hearfield letting fly from four yards out. The reflex save Bosnich produced to keep out the shot was simply stunning. Hutchinson went close soon afterwards with a shot on the run, while five minutes from time, substitute Adrian Caceres surged through three challenges before Moss saved at his feet. In between times, a 71st minute raid inspired by a one-two on the left between Dodd and Lochhead saw the former curl over an inviting cross to which there were no takers in an all-black kit. And in stoppage time, Coveny's shot on the turn fizzed past the uprights after substitutes Ben Sigmund and Tim Brown combined to good effect. These few incidents apart, the Hyundai A-League was ill-served by this dire display of football. Little wonder Wellington sports fans are staying away in droves when round-ball action is scheduled at Westpac Stadium these days, switching their allegiance instead to the city's title-chasing rugby team to get value for their sporting entertainment dollars. Until Wellington Phoenix recapture that entertainment aspect in their game, as well as the art of winning, only the die-hards will stick with the ship - and there have been less than 7000 of them at each Wellington home game so far this season. Given the lack of quality evident in this display, it's not hard to understand why. Wellington:     Moss; Mulligan, Durante, McKain, Lochhead; Hearfield (booked, 45) (Gao, 74), Johnson (booked, 5), Dodd (booked, 18) (Brown, 86), Daniel (Sigmund, 72); Smeltz, Coveny Mariners:     Bosnich; Clark (D'Apuzzo, 83), Wilkinson, Boogaard, Bojic (booked, 54); Osman, Jedinak, Hutchinson (booked, 50), Porter; Simon, Petrovski (Cacares, 72) Referee:     Strebre Delovski