After what was a rather lacklustre showing at home last week, the Wellington Phoenix went to Perth to play in the biggest derby in the A-League. Forget the Melbourne derby, forget the Sydney derby, it's all about the long distance derby (kinda dumb but hey) and the Phoenix rose to this momentous occasion to snatch a win late in the game.

A 2-1 win in Perth is always going to tickle the tastebuds but with Vince Lia scoring the winner from a corner, there was even more reason to get cray cray. I made a point of Lia being largely absent last week against Melbourne City and I'd still love to see Lia make way for another attacking weapon, although Lia went about convincing me that he's the man rather nicely.

Without Andrew Durante at the back (who probably won't play next week either) the Nix were pretty strong defensively and Lia, along with Albert Riera had a strong hand in that. Only Ben Sigmund had more clearances (six) than Lia's five, with Sigmund and his CB partner Manny Muscat also the only players to have more interceptions than Lia (five vs four). Throw in Lia's 81 percent passing accuracy from 42 passes (Riera made 44 passes at 68.2 percent) and I'm willing to give Lia the benefit of the doubt ... oh and a winner.

What was strange, besides Lia scoring the goal was that it came from a corner after the Nix tortured us fans with consistently lame corners up to that point. The commentators laboured on the fact that the Nix weren't throwing many bodies forward with a max of four players usually going forward to compete what is effectively a 'put it in the mixer' sort of situation. It honestly got to the point where I didn't want a corner because I knew that it would be hacked into a group of Perth defenders without any threat from the Nix being offered. This is obviously a plan from Ernie! so I'll roll with it but the Nix never even contemplated going short and passing their way into the box, they just kept persisting ... ah, but their perseverance paid off!

Ben Sigmund was immense in Durante's absence and showed that he can be the dominant force at the back without Durante. There were worrying signs last week once Durante went off injured, but maybe Sigmund goes better when he has a week knowing that Durante won't be there and he must step up. Same goes with Manny Muscat who always stepped up after last week and while as he's short bugger (which is a weakness that could be exploited) he is able to cover ground quickly and was pretty good alongside Sigmund.

What Muscat's move to CB does though is it opens the door for Tom Doyle. Now I don't like this concept but Doyle was easily Wellington's worst player on the field in my eyes as he lacks the speed or incisiveness as say Louis Fenton on the other side of the field, which in turn is also a defensive weakness as he tries to deal with nifty wingers. Doyle should have another chance next week to rid himself of the tag that I've given him and I hope he does because even though the Nix won here, both Doyle and Fenton weren't as potent down the flanks as you'd like. Fenton definitely took defenders on and unlike Doyle he got in those positions and showed attacking intent,

Roy Krishna scored the first goal and boy was it a cracker. I definitely don't think we have seen the best of the Nix on attack just yet though, despite Krishna and Michael McGlinchey putting in a better shift than last week. Jeffrey Sarpong looks like he is still trying to settle in and I wouldn't blame you for not knowing that he was on the park. Sarpong had 22 touches to McGlinchey's 52 and when Sarpong feels comfy with his new Phoenix homies, I'd like to see a more even split between the two which will make them harder to defend against.

As always Roly Bonevacia was heavily involved as he and McGlinchey sparked most of the attacking movements, and the Nix will need him to repeat this dose against Brisbane Roar this Saturday night. The Roar are the only team with two wins so far and look pretty damn good under John Aloisi and the Phoenix must be eyeing this game up as a great test to see where they are it. Bring it on.

Quick note - We got a nice look at Kwabena Appiah, who came on in the second half and I want to see more of Appiah. Appiah played up front on the left with Blake Powell coming on in the middle and I would love to see Appiah play alongside Krishna for example, as well as repeating the Appiah/Powell dose. Powell seems to be the most striker-ish striker the Nix have and this enables the Nix to play one style with Krishna roaming with play-makers in behind him and then bring on Powell and/or Appiah to switch things up. I like options.

Quick note #2 - I'm not sure what the plan is for Alex Rodriguez. Last week he came on right back, this week he came on in the midfield.

Quick note #3 - Krishna looks excited, like he looks as though he's fired up to lead this Phoenix team and take over from Nathan Burns.