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15Mar20
Wellington Sign Off In Style At Sky Stadium
by Jeremy Ruane
Faced with having to relocate to Australia to complete their Hyundai A-League campaign thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Wellington Phoenix signed off in style at Sky Stadium on March 15, sweeping aside Melbourne Victory 3-0 in front of 7,519 fans.
The home team couldn't have got off to a better start, opening the scoring after just 130 seconds. Tim Payne stormed down the right to the byline, from where he pinged a cross to the far post. Reno Piscopo headed it down, and Ulises Davila was on hand to volley home emphatically into the roof of the net from six yards.
Melbourne took a while to recover from that blow, and came under plenty of pressure from the home team before doing so, but the visitors finally mustered a threat in the eleventh minute when Migjen Basha latched onto a loose ball in midfield and threaded a pass through for Andrew Nabbout, who sliced his shot well wide of the target.
Wellington responded with a stylish raid two minutes later, Cameron Devlin, Piscopo and Payne all featuring. The fullback's cross went just behind David Ball, who managed to execute a shot despite the awkwardness of doing so. Lawrence Thomas greedily grabbed the effort.
After Stefan Marinovic had raced out of his penalty area to prevent an Elvis Kamsoba pass from reaching the marauding Marco Rojas, Gary Hooper picked out Payne with a measured pass which invited the fullback to deliver an inviting cross which Piscopo attempted, unsuccessfully, to meet with a bicycle kick.
His miscued effort was cleared as far as Liberato Cacace, who flighted a measured cross into the near post area. Arriving on cue was Hooper, whose deft flick flashed across the face of goal and past Thomas' far post.
Wellington doubled their lead half-way through the first half with a brilliant striker's goal. A Kamsoba slip - he had trouble keeping his feet throughout proceedings - this time let in Cacace, who clipped the ball into the heart of the goalmouth.
Anticipating it superbly, Hooper timed his run to meet it to perfection, yet still had plenty of work to do, given his back was to goal. Cue an exquisite glancing back header, which arced beyond Thomas and into the top far corner of the net - 2-0, and easily the best goal Hooper has scored in Wellington's colours.
He would have had another four minutes later, had Storm Roux not cut out Cacace's cross after James Donachie's error had let in Ball, who deftly back-heeled the ball into the path of the overlapping fullback.
This spurred Melbourne into action, with Stefan Marinovic forced to produce a flying save to his right to deny Rojas just shy of the half-hour mark. Seven minutes later, patient approach work by the visitors culminated in Nabbout playing in Rojas to the byline, from where he angled a low cross to the near post, targeting the fast-arriving figure of debutant Birkan Kirdar.
Arriving even quicker was Payne, whose tracking run allowed him to intercept the cross and clear the danger in much the same manner as Hooper five minutes before half-time, the goalscorer hooking the ball to safety as Roux looked to meet Nabbout's corner with a diving header.
Right on half-time, Ball went close with a chipped effort following the partial clearance of a Payne cross by Melbourne's defence, which buckled again five minutes into the second spell as a stray Nabbout pass was pounced on by Ball, who surged forth before setting up Cacace for a shot on the run which Thomas turned round his near post.
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The corner was cleared, and a swift counter-attack culminated in Nabbout shooting straight at Marinovic after Rojas had sent him charging through the inside-left channel with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Wellington killed off the game as a contest ten minutes into the second spell. Hooper, ten yards inside his own half, curled a gem of a pass one bounce into the stride of Ball, some forty yards upfield, inviting his front-running partner to take on and beat two defenders before battering an eighteen yarder beyond Thomas' despairing dive into the far corner of the net - 3-0.
Thomas had better luck keeping out a Piscopo twenty-five yarder soon after, to which Melbourne responded with a raid led by surprise substitute Ola Toivonen - most expected him to start. His pass played Kamsoba in on goal, but Steven Taylor's timely lunge diverted the speedster's shot to safety on the hour.
Ten minutes later, a Toivonen free-kick found Donachie lurking on the far post, from where he steered the ball inside looking for Nabbout. Marinovic's one-handed parry averted the danger, while Matti Steinmann blocked a Rojas drive soon afterwards before Melbourne had penalty claims against Luke DeVere rebuffed by referee Alex King.
The visitors found the back of the net in the 73rd minute. Kamsoba's cross was cleared by DeVere as far as Nabbout, who unleashed a wayward shot in the general direction of the goal. Toivonen instinctively stuck out a leg to divert the ball across Marinovic and into the far corner of the net to the delight of the scorer and his team-mates.
But it was desperately close from the perspective of offside, and it took three minutes of perusal by the Video Assistant Referee before the decision was made to rule out the goal by the narrowest of margins.
That setback knocked the stuffing out of the visitors, who had great difficulty penetrating Wellington's rearguard throughout proceedings. The same can't be said of the home side when they decided to go through the gears in pursuit of a fourth goal - finding gaps in Melbourne's defence was arguably the least of their concerns.
It was the final ball which was what unhinged Wellington on numerous occasions, most notably in the 89th minute, when Alex Rufer sent Tim Payne scurrying into the penalty area with an absolute gem of a sixty yard pass.
The fullback's cross arced beyond both Hooper and Ben Waine, but not Cacace, whose cross was cleared by Donachie for a corner. Melbourne cleared their lines on this occasion, but a Davila corner - the last kick of the game - was arcing into the net until Thomas intervened to turn the sphere over the bar.
Wellington were home and dry long before these efforts, however, and head across the Tasman lying third in the table with six games still to play before the play-offs. But the impact of the coronavirus means both teams will be in self-isolation for a fortnight when they travel west, with Football Federation Australia set to make a decision regarding the rest of the league campaign on Monday.
Wellington: Marinovic; Payne, Taylor, DeVere, Cacace; Davila, Devlin (booked, 10) (Rufer, 62 (booked, 66), Steinmann (booked, 78), Piscopo (Sotirio, 79); Hooper, Ball (Waine, 87)
Melbourne: Thomas; Roux (booked, 57), Donachie, Carrigan, Broxham; Kamsoba, Basha, Lesiotis (Toivonen, 56), Kirdar (booked, 20) (Nishikawa, 56); Rojas (Lauton, 80), Nabbout (booked, 86)
Referee: Alex King
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