Wellington Phoenix are just one game away from the Hyundai A-League Grand Final after coming from behind to sink Newcastle Jets 3-1 after extra time in a thrilling semi-final at Westpac Stadium on March 7. Urged on by 32,792 fans - another record attendance for the game in New Zealand - Wellington started like a house on fire, with Leo Bertos' first minute corner picking out the head of Andrew Durante, whose header was cleared off the line by the combination of Newcastle goalkeeper Ben Kennedy and striker Ali Abbas. The home team continued to dominate the early exchanges, but encountered stubborn resistance from a Newcastle team which approached the match with a refreshingly positive attitude, and a game plan to match. But they survived another scare in the twelfth minute as, with options aplenty to choose from, Tim Brown dithered and was caught in possession on the edge of the Newcastle penalty area by Ben Kantarovski. Newcastle rode out the storm, and literally silenced the massive crowd in the twentieth minute by taking the lead. Wellington failed to clear a throw-in, and Jets captain Matthew Thompson flew in to capitalise, burying the ball beyond Liam Reddy from the edge of the six-yard box. Wellington wasted little time in seeking a swift riposte. Straight from the kick-off, they thundered downfield, and both Brown and Paul Ifill had shots blocked before Vince Lia thundered the rebound from the latter's effort wide of the mark. Two minutes later, Durante picked out Manny Muscat with a pass which the Maltese international's deft touch past a defender turned into a goalscoring opportunity. But Kennedy was alert to the danger, and swiftly advanced off his line to block at close quarters from the midfielder. Not used to finding themselves trailing on home turf, Wellington started to get a bit frustrated, and conceded niggly fouls aplenty for a brief period. That all changed in the 33rd minute, however, when they fashioned a splendidly worked equaliser. Bertos and Lia linked on the right, with the latter playing the ball through the inside right channel to Chris Greenacre. He held off the challenge of Ljubo Milicevic before picking out Ifill with a cross to the far post. The Barbados international's shot was blocked by Nikolai Topor-Stanley - a rock in Newcastle's rearguard throughout proceedings. But the striker swiftly gathered the rebound and angled the ball into the stride of Brown, who buried the ball beyond Kennedy from eight yards. Now it was Newcastle's turn to take out their frustrations with a string of ill-conceived challenges. Not before Ifill took on two opponents and evaded repeated challenges from them before stinging Kennedy's gloves ten minutes before half-time. Four minutes later, Bertos' free-kick to the far post found Brown arriving unmarked, but he guided his glancing header past the upright, much to Kennedy's relief, which quickly transformed into a right ear-bashing for the defenders in front of him as he berated their laxness on this occasion. Newcastle finished the half the stronger, twice going close in the minutes before half-time. Sean Rooney's through ball rewarded the fine off-the-ball running of Jin Hyung Song in the 42nd minute, and his low cross from the by-line somehow eluded the fast-arriving figure of Thompson as he dashed in at the near post. Seconds later, Tarek Elrich squandered a glorious chance to restore Newcastle's lead when played in by Abbas. The overlapping fullback found himself one-on-one with just Reddy to beat, but he shot straight at the 'keeper to ensure the first half ended with the scores locked at 1-1. And that's how they remained after a vibrant second half, which saw chances aplenty created, particularly by Wellington. A clever pass by Ifill in the 49th minute released Troy Lochhead down the left, but his cross was partially cleared as far as Bertos, whose looping delivery, targeting Greenacre, was plucked off his head by Kennedy. Lia and Lochhead linked on the left moments later - the fullback's back-heeled pass was scrumptious - to play Ifill in, only for Elrich to redeem himself for his first half miss with a timely tackle, which sparked a Newcastle counter-attack. Thompson was the ultimate beneficiary of the fullback's endeavours, and sent the full-of-running Abbas buccaneering down the left at pace before dashing into the penalty area and clipping a cross to the far post. Arriving on cue was Thompson, who somehow contrived to bundle the ball past the post with Reddy scrambling across his goal - a great chance spurned. Wellington responded on the hour, Ifill evading a couple of opponents before inviting Bertos to break down the left, from where he delivered a cross which arced narrowly over the heads of three yellow-and-black-clad players in the penalty area. Seconds later, another cross hurtled into Newcastle's penalty area. Elrich rose to head the ball clear, but only succeeded in directing a looping header towards the top left-hand corner of his own net. Kennedy produced a superb save to keep the scores level. The resulting Bertos corner was cleared to Ifill, whose rifled twenty-five yard drive was headed over his own crossbar by Topor-Stanley, as Newcastle continued to weather the storm. The offside flag came to their aid in the 65th minute, as Lia, Ifill and Brown combined to play Greenacre in through the inside left channel - Kennedy produced another solid blocking save, despite the decision. Two minutes later, Lochhead released the freshly introduced legs of Daniel down the left, with the Brazilian sending a lovely ball down the line for Greenacre to latch onto and cross to the far post for Ifill, who cut inside but shot high, wide and far from handsomely past the far post. A volley from Daniel flashed over the bar soon after, before a clash of the captains at the other end of the park saw Durante prevail at Thompson's expense, as the midfielder looked to capitalise on an opportunity afforded him by substitute Mirjan Pavlovic, who got the better of Ben Sigmund to engineer the opening twenty minutes from time. Reddy saved at the feet of Thompson six minutes later after the Newcastle man had tangled with Sigmund inside the area, an example of the last-ditch defensive work which, along with the interceptions, stray passes and thrilling counter-attacking, were making this a real edge-of-the-seat affair off which you daren't take your eyes lest something be missed. Back steamed Wellington, Daniel picking out Ifill on the right with a peach of a pass, which the striker turned into a scoring opportunity after superbly wrong-footing an opponent. He pulled the ball back into the goalmouth, and with Newcastle unable to clear the threat, Brown directed the ball towards substitute Eugene Dadi, who directed his close-range header over the bar.

Two minutes from time, Ifill was hauled down on the edge of the penalty area as he dashed between two opponents. Daniel's free-kick was scrambled to safety by Newcastle, who had the chance to win the game with a ninetieth minute counter-attack. Abbas led it, working a one-two with evergreen substitute Sasho Petrovski before picking out the unmarked Pavlovic with an inviting cross. The substitute had the goal in his sights, but blazed wildly over the target, much to the relief of the Wellington fans, who urged their charges on as stoppage time loomed. Like Newcastle, the home team had the chance to win at the death, and it really was at the death in this instance, the fourth minute of stoppage time, to be precise. And of all people, it was Ifill who spurned a chance he would normally have converted with his eyes closed. Backing up Greenacre, as Wellington mounted a last-ditch assault on the Newcastle goal, the ball broke for Ifill, who quickly swept past a challenge to leave himself one-on-one with Kennedy. He rounded the 'keeper, but with the goal gaping before him, he couldn't get the ball under control in time, allowing Kennedy to recover and the visitors to clear their lines. Referee Chris Beath - he hardly put a foot wrong all day - blew the final whistle, which meant another Hyundai A-League play-off series fixture was destined to go on for at least thirty more minutes. This one started with a bang, or, rather, a thud - Ifill smashed a shot against the base of the post as Wellington attacked straight from the kick-off, the rebound careering past the outstretched leg of Dadi as he attempted to turn the ball home. Newcastle continued to live dangerously, some lovely combination play down the left between Dadi, Lochhead and Daniel culminating in the last-mentioned picking out Ifill on the far post with a measured cross which invited a volleyed finish. The striker opted to control the ball, and the chance was lost, albeit temporarily. For Muscat was up in support of Ifill, and promptly delivered the ball into the danger zone for Dadi, who was unable to direct the sphere towards the target. Back came Newcastle, substitute Labinot Haliti - a surprise non-starter - looping a volley from an Abbas free-kick onto the roof of Wellington's net, before Abbas and Pavlovic caused problems in the heart of the home team's rearguard, engineering an opportunity for Petrovski. His curled twenty-yarder beat Reddy all ends up, only to ricochet to safety off the post in the 101st minute. Wellington stormed straight downfield on the counter-attack, with Ifill, Dadi and Daniel all attempting to shoot at the target, only for Topor-Stanley, Kantarovski and company to stand firm. But on the stroke of half-time in extra-time, the resilience of Newcastle's defence was broken by the talismanic Ifill. Sigmund broke out of defence and picked out Brown, who sprayed the sphere towards the striker, near the edge of the penalty area. Ifill swept past an opponent before battering the ball beyond Kennedy and into the far corner of the net. How Wellington's fans rejoiced! But there was still fifteen minutes for them to endure before their team could be certain of progressing to the last three. And there was no way Newcastle were going to take this setback lying down. Straight from the start of the second half of extra time, Petrovski was prowling around the penalty area, and lashed a twenty-yarder towards the target. Reddy grabbed this, and scrambled a Pavlovic shot to safety four minutes later after the striker had taken on and bettered three Wellington defenders at the sharp end of another slick counter-attack. Still Newcastle pressed, this time earning a free-kick in the 113th minute. Kantarovski's delivery was headed clear, and immediately Daniel commandeered possession, his raking cross-field ball picking out Ifill on the right. He side-stepped a challenge before darting into the penalty area and squaring the ball, only to find no-one up in support of him on this occasion. That wasn't the case two minutes later, however, as Wellington finally finished off Newcastle's season. It was the substitutes who combined, and again it stemmed from a counter-attack as they cleared a free-kick from the visitors. Dadi did the deed inside his own penalty area, his clearance releasing Daniel down the left. As his cross-field ball arced towards Diego Walsh, who was steaming through the inside-right channel, the uniquely coiffured Dadi was powering through the middle of the park. As Walsh's low cross careered across the goalmouth, the man who ignited the move was on hand to finish it, ramming the ball emphatically into the roof of the net to lift the lid off "The Caketin"! 3-1 Wellington, and they weren't done with yet! Urged on by the fans, they went all out for a fourth goal, Kennedy blocking from Ifill after more fine work down the left by Daniel - his introduction was the key to the home team's success. And two minutes from time, referee Beath turned away penalty claims as Dadi, having been released by Muscat down the right, was thwarted inside the area by the hard-working Kantarovski, whose efforts, and those of his team-mates, weren't enough to deny Wellington's passage into the preliminary final, a 3-1 extra-time win ensuring the victors' involvement will last until at least the penultimate week of the campaign. Wellington:     Reddy; Hearfield (Dadi, 74), Sigmund, Durante (booked, 98), Lochhead; Lia (Walsh, 109), Brown, Muscat (booked, 112); Bertos (Daniel, 66), Greenacre, Ifill Newcastle:     Kennedy; Elrich, Milicevic, Topor-Stanley, D'Apuzzo (booked, 34); Song (Haliti, 80), Wheelhouse (booked, 45), Kantarovski, Thompson (Petrovski, 85), Abbas (booked, 88); Rooney (Pavlovic, 68) Referee:     Chris Beath Wellington's reward for progressing to the penultimate stage of the competition is a trip to the premiership winners, Sydney FC, after a 2-2 draw after extra-time with Melbourne Victory at the Sydney Football Stadium saw the reigning A-League champions prevail 4-3 on aggregate. Melbourne got off to the perfect start when Robbie Kruse curled home a beauty on the quarter hour, but Karol Kisel dragged Sydney back into the contest ten minutes before half-time, and Michael Bridge levelled the aggregate scoreline nine minutes into the second spell. There was no change to Sydney's 2-1 lead come the ninety minute mark, meaning an additional thirty minutes would be required to break the deadlock. Six minutes from time, two old heads worked an old trick to perfection, much to the despair of the home fans among the 23,818 people in attendance. Kevin Muscat's controversial yet quickly taken free-kick was read perfectly by Archie Thompson, who stole in behind Sydney's flat-footed defence to steer home the equaliser on the night, and the winning goal over what was a thrilling two-legged affair. Melbourne progress to the Grand Final, which they will host on March 20 at Etihad Stadium. Who they will face will be determined at the Sydney Football Stadium next Saturday, from 10.30pm NZ time.