Wellington Phoenix maintained their winning record against Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium on 18 November, scoring a 3-0 triumph on the road to make it eight wins from their last nine games against their Novocastrian rivals. The 13,116 fans present saw a rather turgid affair unfold before them, with caution the watchword of both sides, whose prime objective appeared to be not losing. As a result, very little of consequence occurred in the opening half-hour, Mark Paston punching Jobe Wheelhouse's corner off the head of James Virgili's head before Mark Birighitti reacted quickly to thwart Louis Fenton's pursuit of Leo Bertos' well-flighted delivery. The game perked up a touch in the later stages of the opening half, with Alex Smith's header, from Bertos' measured cross, bulleting past the far post in the 33rd minute. Newcastle's response saw Wellington fail to clear Wheelhouse's free-kick, which allowed Scott Neville to let fly through a crowded goalmouth. Paston saw it late and got down well to parry the effort to safety, with no-one in a red-and-blue shirt following in. That wasn't the case in the 39th minute, when, following a series of Wheelhouse corners, Emile Heskey went close. But Wellington stood firm, and went close to breaking the deadlock in the 42nd minute. Smith careered down the right at pace before whipping in a cross which had former Newcastle striker Jeremy Brockie as its intended target. Birighitti scrambled this threat to safety, in doing so sparking a counter-attack which saw Tiago Calvano surge out of defence before sending Ryan Griffiths racing through with just Paston to beat. The midfielder stumbled at the vital moment, however, much to the collective relief of the visitors. Wellington's response saw them take the lead with virtually the last attack of the first half. Paul Ifill has endured an indifferent start to the season form-wise, but he rediscovered it in this match, working an opening on the right before picking out Brockie with a peach of a cross which the striker controlled perfectly before despatching with aplomb. Stunned by this setback, Newcastle sought to redress the balance in the early stages of the second spell. Heskey was only inches away from heading home the equaliser after Josh Mitchell's free-kick had been flicked on by Neville in the 55th minute. Eight minutes later, Paston required two attempts to thwart Griffiths' well-struck twenty-five yarder, to which Wellington responded with a 65th minute raid which unintentionally left Birighitti in agony.

Bertos played the ball forward for Smith, whose flick invited Brockie to burst through on goal with just the 'keeper to beat. Birighitti blocked the ball well, but his former club-mate couldn't avoid colliding with the custodian, who slumped to the ground with what was later diagnosed as a fractured cheekbone. The incident knocked Newcastle sideways, and in the last ten minutes Wellington took full advantage. Ifill worked his way down the right before whipping in a cross which Smith only just failed to reach, Calvano being forced to turn the ball over his own crossbar. The resulting corner was cleared, but only as far as Brockie, who brought freshly introduced substitute Benjamin Totori into play. His cross found Ben Sigmund lurking with intent, and his headed effort wasn't cleared, allowing Brockie to dash in and guide an angled header over all-comers and into the net by the far post in the 81st minute. Wellington's 2-0 lead increased still further six minutes later. Totori set sail for goal from half-way, his plans only being thwarted once he'd entered the penalty area by Mitchell. Sadly for the defender, his intrusion saw referee Chris Beath point to the spot, from where Ifill rifled the ball past Birighitti's replacement, Matthew Nash. The game was well and truly up for the home team now, and Totori could and should have rubbed further salt into their wounds in stoppage time. Smith sent the Solomon Islands striker sprinting through, and he stood up Mitchell a treat before calmly rounding Nash, who forced the front-runner away from the target. With Brockie perfectly placed to complete his hat-trick in the heart of the goalmouth, Totori went for glory, but achieved ignominy by firing into the side-netting when scoring seemed a given. One hopes this doesn't come back to haunt the visitors later in the season, when goal difference factors come into play. As it was, they scored one of their biggest-ever victories on the road with this welcome win, one which lifted them off the bottom of the table - a position into which they had slipped overnight - into a far more tolerable mid-table slot, while arresting a three-match losing streak. Newcastle:     Birighitti (Nash, 69); Neville, Calvano, Mitchell (booked, 87), Brilliante; Wheelhouse, Griffiths, Zadkovich; Virgili (Taggart, 59), Heskey, Brown (Bridges, 83) Wellington:     Paston; Bertos, Sigmund, Durante, Lochhead; Lia, Muscat, Smith; Fenton (booked, 51) (Totori, 81), Brockie (Clarke, 90), Ifill (Boyd, 90) Referee:     Chris Beath