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19Jan24
Last-Gasp Penalty Earns Co-Leaders A Point
by Jeremy Ruane
A last-gasp Alex Rufer penalty earned ten-man Wellington Phoenix a point from their top-of-the-table Isuzu Ute A-League encounter with Melbourne Victory on January 19, their 1-1 draw being watched by 9139 fans at Sky Stadium, Wellington's biggest home crowd of the season to date.
The visitors started strongly, a lovely six-man move in the fourth minute culminating in Nishan Velupillay playing in the overlapping Adama Traore, who rattled the near post side-netting of Alex Paulsen's goal.
Wellington responded via David Ball, whose twenty yard drive sizzled narrowly past the far post four minutes later after Ben Old had taken advantage of an untimely slip by Jason Geria near the right-hand touchline.
Back came Melbourne, Daniel Arzani darting down the right before getting in behind Lukas Kelly-Heald and scooting along the by-line before looking to set up Chris Ikonomidis. The retreating figure of Ball got to the ball first, however, then collided with the striker in the penalty area. Referee Daniel Elder, who spent most of his evening favouring the visitors with his decisions, didn't on this occasion.
In the nineteenth minute, a raking ball forward by Finn Surman found Tim Payne, of all people, leading the charge for the Wellingtonians. Daniel De Silva snuffed out that potential threat, but another wasn't long in coming, this time inspired by Wellington captain Alex Rufer.
He won the ball on halfway and sent Costa Barbarouses careering downfield, taking on all-comers. He eventually slipped the ball into the stride of Old, who stumbled at the wrong moment, allowing Melbourne to clear their lines.
Not for long, however, for Old was soon back in possession, this time delivering a low cross into the stride of Bozhidar Kraev, who was sliding in with more than a little assistance from the retreating figure of Traore, who was hanging onto the Bulgarian's arm for dear life!
Kraev's shot was blocked by Paul Izzo, but Wellington were already appealing for a penalty, which looked an odds-on certainty. Incredibly, bizarrely, unbelievably - use whichever adjective you like, the Video Assistant Referee supported referee Elder's decision that nothing untoward had occurred … "Do me a favour, Rodney!", as Del Boy would say.
Melbourne cranked up the pressure, Arzani clipping the crossbar with an acute-angled cross before Ball was caught in possession by Zinedine Machach, who got to the by-line but saw his attempted cross thwarted by the covering figures of Scott Wootton and Nick Pennington.
Arzani's resulting corner culminated in a close-range shot from Roderick Miranda being saved on the line by Paulsen, who looked on with relief on the half-hour as Jake Brimmer's 22-yard free-kick curled over the wall and narrowly over the bar.
It was a measure of Melbourne's pressure that both Ball and Barbarouses spent much of the half shoring up the efforts of their rearguard to keep the visitors at bay. But Melbourne should have opened the scoring six minutes before half-time, when Brimmer sent Arzani away on another right-wing escapade.
Once more, Kelly-Heald was found wanting as the tricky Melbourne wide man took him to the cleaners before delivering a low cross from the by-line which zoomed across the face of goal and through the legs of Velupillay as he arrived on the far post - if ever there was a "How did he miss?" moment, this was it!
Wellington responded via their front-line duo, Ball's pass inviting Barbarouses to send Da Silva for an Echo in the penalty area before he pulled the
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trigger. Izzo was equal to his shot, and sparked a counter-attack which saw the ball in Wellington's net.
But when Velupillay pulled the trigger on receipt of Arzani's cross, Ikonomidis, who had narrowly failed to make contact with said cross, was just beyond Paulsen, so his deft flick to divert the ball home from close range didn't count - he'd come back from an offside position to do the damage. 0-0 it remained.
When the half-time whistle sounded, Wellington were down to ten men, Payne having been shown the red card after a VAR upgrade, the technology deeming that his reckless challenge on Machach was deserving of more than just the yellow card referee Elder had brandished.
That meant the home team would be up against it in the second spell, Miranda firing Melbourne's first shot in anger soon after play had resumed, drawing a save from Paulsen. The 'keeper plunged to his left to keep out Brimmer's thirty yard free-kick on the hour, while from the resulting corner, Wellington launched a counter-attack through Rufer, who worked a one-two with Barbarouses before being by the charging figure of Izzo, who cleared off the toes of Wellington's captain.
Melbourne introduced some fresh legs to the fray, wanting to add pace to their numerical superiority. Machach wriggled his way through Wellington's jam-packed rearguard before drawing a solid blocked save from Paulsen, whose defence restricted his involvement for large parts of the half - Wootton, in particular, was outstanding, his fine block preventing Ben Folami and Velupillay working a one-two in the area in the 78th minute.
The visitors took the lead from Arzani's resulting corner. It was cleared as far as Velupillay, who drove the ball back into the goal area, the sphere striking substitute Connor Chapman and ricocheting into the net - 1-0 Melbourne, with eleven minutes remaining in this largely one-sided top-of-the-table tussle.
Referee Elder wasn't interested when Barbarouses went down under Da Silva's challenge in the penalty area as the striker looked to get on the end of Old's cross, while in the 86th minute, Geria's brave airborne block thwarted a Wootton piledriver after Old's corner had been partially punched clear by Izzo.
Back came Melbourne, Paulsen flying to his left to keep out a Jordi Valadon twenty-yarder, to which the home team responded through substitute Oskar Van Hattum. Picked out by Kraev, he cut inside Geria and promptly let fly, the ball careering narrowly past the far post.
But deep in stoppage time, Van Hattum's attempt to get on the end of Old's angled pass was foiled in clumsy fashion by Geria, whose challenge was deemed to be worthy of a penalty after yet another intervention from the Video Assistant Referee.
Melbourne were furious, and gave referee Elder both barrels - strangely, they hadn't behaved in this manner when beneficiaries of some unjust calls earlier in the match. Once their anger had died down, Rufer sent Izzo the wrong way from the penalty spot to earn the ten men of Wellington a point, as well as retain their position atop the table by virtue of having won more games than the team who extended their unbeaten run to thirteen matches with this draw.
Wellington: Paulsen; Payne (sent off, 45), Surman, Wootton, Kelly-Heald (Van Hattum, 83); Kraev (Supyk, 89), Pennington (Al-Taay, 83), Rufer, Old; Barbarouses, Ball (Sutton, 69)
Melbourne: Izzo; Geria, Da Silva, Miranda, Traore (booked, 36 (Folami, 63)); Brimmer (Valadon, 87), Machach, Marchan (Teague, 63); Arzani (Adams, 82), Ikonomidis (Chapman, 63), Velupillay
Referee: Daniel Elder
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