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27Nov21
Wellington Maintain Unbeaten Run With Hard-Fought Win
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix climbed to a share of the overnight lead in the Isuzu Ute A-League on November 27, overcoming Central Coast Mariners 2-1 at WIN Stadium to extend their unbeaten run to thirteen matches.
It was a hard-earned triumph for Ufuk Talay's side, who spurned the chance to make the last ten minutes a lot easier for themselves when squandering a penalty which was controversial not for its awarding, but for the power struggle which ensued between Reno Piscopo and Ben Waine as to which of them would take it. About which, more later.
For plenty had occurred by the time that incident came to pass. Indeed, Wellington could have scored twice inside the first five minutes, with Joshua Laws seeing his goalbound header, from a Clayton Lewis corner, deflected to safety, before Gary Hooper's low twenty yard drive was smothered by Mark Birighitti, after James McGarry, Piscopo and Lewis had teamed up on the left.
The visitors mounted a couple of threatening raids in response, but it was the home team - Wollongong is Wellington's home away from home in Australia - who went close to breaking the deadlock in the twelfth minute, Jaushua Sotirio's low cross careering across the six yard box after a Lewis corner had been cleared to Piscopo.
That roused the Mariners into action, and over the course of the next eight minutes Wellington goalkeeper Oliver Sail was thrice called upon to keep his team on level terms. He first flew to his right to turn away a rasping twenty-yarder from Marcos Urena, following Cy Goddad's left flank raid, then kept out two Oliver Bozanic efforts from distance in a sixty-second spell.
Both these attacks started on the right flank, and featured Josh Nesbit, the overlapping Storm Roux, Urena and his young forward line partner in crime, Damian Tsekenis, who fulfilled the target man duties well in order to set up both shooting chances for his captain.
Wellington weathered the storm, and a thirty yard volleyed snapshot from Hooper, which flew narrowly past the far post in the 27th minute, suggested they were back in business from an attacking perspective, a thought reaffirmed five minutes later when Hooper latched onto a loose ball and switched play to McGarry, who evaded a challenge before letting fly, drawing a solid near post save under pressure from Birighitti as a result.
The fullback featured again soon afterwards, his return pass allowing Sotirio to cleverly outfox Ruon Tongyik and lure Birighitti out of goal, only to see his attempt to curl the ball round the 'keeper get diverted to safety by the covering figure of Kye Rowles. From Piscopo's resulting corner, Sotirio steered a six-yarder over the bar.
The last act of note in the half occurred seven minutes before referee Jack Morgan blew the half-time whistle. McGarry teamed up with Piscopo, whose lobbed ball into the danger zone deceived Birighitti and only just evaded the flying figure of Callan Elliot, as the fullback acrobatically looked to hook the ball goalwards.
It was all on for young and old at the start of the second spell, with both teams netting inside the first seven minutes of the half. Birighitti began the half in flying formation, launching himself to his left to keep out a twenty-five yard free-kick from Piscopo in the 47th minute.
It merely delayed the inevitable, for within sixty seconds, Wellington opened the scoring. Lewis' corner, from Birighitti's save, wasn't cleared, with Hooper Johnny on the spot to lash home a ricochet from two yards, a goal which was eventually awarded after VAR had determined that the scorer didn't net from an offside position.
Central Coast retorted quickly, and after Max Balard's angled twenty yard volley had flashed narrowly past Sail's post, they were gifted an equaliser by Laws. Rowles hoisted the ball downfield for Urena to chase, but the defender was always in charge of the situation, until the time came for him to play the ball back to his goalkeeper.
Laws got the execution of this relatively straightforward task completely wrong, and the Costa Rican striker said thanks very much and gleefully rolled the ball past the stranded figure of Sail into the empty net beyond - 1-1 after 52 minutes.
Now it was all on for young and old, with both teams eager to take the lead. Wellington tried to do so in the 55th minute via some neat one-twos
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involving Piscopo and Hooper, then the striker and the overlapping figure of McGarry, whose first-time return cross invited the game's first scorer to let rip from twelve yards. Birighitti parried then grabbed the sphere.
Central Coast twice forced scrambled clearances inside the next five minutes, Payne doing the honours on the first occasion after Nesbit had somehow got in behind McGarry in the penalty area.
Substitute Matheus Rodrigues then announced his arrival on the scene with a charging run before bringing Urena into play. His shot on the turn from eight yards went through Laws' legs, prompting a smart parried save by Sail. Payne stepped in to avert the danger.
Urena then thrashed a rising drive narrowly over the bar from the edge of the area after a surging run by Nesbit, to which Wellington responded by regaining the lead in the 63rd minute. McGarry, Piscopo and David Ball combined neatly before the last-mentioned brought Sotirio into play on the right.
His twenty-yarder deflected off the leg of Jacob Farrell - a youngster not dissimilar in appearance to Charlie George in his Arsenal days - and careered past Birighitti before cannoning in off the far post - 2-1.
All the fun of the fair duly followed, substitutions galore, a head clash between Farrell and Elliot which saw the Wellington fullback land awkwardly and eventually have to leave the fray with a shoulder injury, and a challenge on Sotirio which left him nursing a very painful Achilles tendon - not a place anyone appreciates being kicked. He, too, had to call time earlier than anticipated.
Coast, meanwhile, came close to levelling matters again fourteen minutes from time. Rodrigues' corner was headed out by Payne to Farrell, who directed the sphere into the stride of Bozanic. His fifteen yard volley stormed narrowly past the far upright.
Two minutes later, Elliot's replacement, Louis Fenton, denied Matthew Hatch in the act of shooting with a timely challenge, before Sail kept Wellington's noses in front by turning away Bozanic's twenty-five yard free-kick eight minutes from time.
Laws and Payne both blocked goalbound shots from Nesbit and Hatch in a thirty-second spell before the home team was gifted the chance to wrap up the points when Rowles' ill-timed challenge sent substitute Ben Old sprawling in the area.
Both Piscopo and Waine had their eyes on the prize, and words were exchanged before the precocious teenager told his older team-mate where to go - hardly the perfect way to prepare to take a potentially match-clinching penalty!
So it proved, Birighitti's splendid save denying Waine the goal he sought. You don't need to be Einstein to know what sort of look Piscopo was casting in his team-mate's direction, but suffice to say if looks could kill, Waine would likely be lying in a coffin right now.
Make no mistake, Piscopo was filthy about what happened, a fact he didn't hesitate to make known to his coach when withdrawn from the fray to make way for defensive reinforcements minutes later.
For after the penalty miss only one team looked like scoring. But Central Coast couldn't unleash the vital shot to earn themselves a share of the spoils. Hatch trod on the ball after evading three challenges, while after Lewis Miller made in-roads down the right, only to direct his cross straight at Sail, Urena was crowded out on the edge of the penalty area deep in stoppage time, a denial which proved decisive in the final outcome.
Wellington will look to continue their unbeaten run at home to Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday evening, but before they do, the club's newest team will make its long-awaited debut, as Wellington Phoenix's women's team makes their A-League Women debut against the same opposition on Friday, 3 December - a red letter day for New Zealand women's football.
Wellington: Sail; Elliot (Fenton, 76), Payne, Laws, McGarry; Ball, Rufer (Pennington, 64), Lewis, Piscopo (Bozinovski, 88); Hooper (Waine, 64), Sotirio (Old, 76)
Central Coast: Birighitti; Roux (Miller, 58), Tongyik (Hall, 88), Rowles, Farrell; Nisbet, Bozanic, Balard (Steele, 70), Goddad (Hatch, 70); Urena, Tsekenis (Rodrigues, 58)
Referee: Jack Morgan
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