As the Wellington Phoenix continue on their quest to establish a long term future in the A-League, gritty away results like Sunday's 1-1 draw against the Central Coast Mariners always go down well. Sure, the Nix might need to play with a swashbuckling nature every game to really make a statement on the field but this draw showed how far the Phoenix have come as Ernie! has turned them into a tough team to defeat in Australia.

The Mariners, with kiwi Storm Roux at right-back like to fly forward with their attacking movements and despite a lack of finishing polish from the Mariners, the Phoenix held the fort admirably to keep the Mariners to one goal. After sneaking an early goal in courtesy of a swift attack in which Roy Krishna delivered a cross-field pass to Michael McGlinchey who slotted it home, the Phoenix then absorbed wave after wave from the Mariners and let in the equalizer that always felt like it was coming.

Most away performances from the Phoenix have put their defensive ability in the spotlight as Ernie! appears to put a greater emphasis on not losing away games, as opposed to their rather free-flowing attack at home. The Mariners enjoyed more possession and twice as many shots from inside the box (11-5) which reinforced the flow of the game as Mitchell Austin on the left and Fabio Ferreira on the right impressed every time they got the ball.

Austin and Ferreira were up against a rejigged defensive combination with Justin Gulley grabbing his debut at right-back as Manny Muscat slotted back in at left-back. Gulley had a fine debut and stood out as someone who could possibly find a home at right-back instead of persisting with Louis Fenton there. Gulley is quick, quick enough to get you excited and he used his pace sparingly going forward while using it wisely on defence as Austin is fairly quick himself. Hopefully we get to see him at home against Adelaide this Friday night.

Gulley is also a nugget, a gritty nugget at that and he adds a touch of ruthlessness that fits the menu as Muscat's on the other flank with Mr Ruthlessness himself Ben Sigmund and Andrew Durante in the middle. Muscat had a tough afternoon against Ferreira, yet Manny battled hard and made sure that Ferreira rarely skipped past him.

Central Coast bossed much of this match and while I've put some of this down to the Nix sitting back a bit, they didn't help themselves in the midfield. Something that I've noticed over the past few weeks is a helter-skelter habit creeping into the Phoenix as they try to go forward, which is great when they win a turnover and look to spark an attack (see McGlinchey's goal) but sometimes this results in a lack of care taken when passing. 

This means that the likes of Jeffrey Sarpong, Roly Bonevacia, Krishna and McGlinchey didn't quite get the opportunities in the attacking third that they should have - Roly hit the post with a cracking shot. In all honesty, these four were reasonably quiet all game as they didn't see much ball in quality areas which made the touches of class for McGlinchey's goal and Roly's shot pretty sweet; these lads don't need too much time or space to create a chance.

I heard some blokes on the local sports radio station talking about how Sarpong hasn't lived up to the hype as Nathan Burns' replacement. This was said after the Mariners' game and clearly it's a bit dumb as Sarpong doesn't do the job that Burns did last season, with Krishna now roaming around up front. Sarpong did have a quiet game against the Mariners though and Roly did as well and we're yet to really see Sarpong's best, which I'm willing to be patient about.

Former versions of the Wellington Phoenix would have lost this game 3-0, so for this team to scrap their way to a 1-1 draw has me oozing optimism all over the show. This wasn't the Phoenix any where near their best as they gave up too much ball in the midfield and struggled to string passes together to release the attacking weapons. The Phoenix did however prove themselves to be a tough team to break down and we got to see an exciting new face in Justin Gulley get his debut as well (along with more game time for Alex Rufer and Mathew Ridenton), which will provide a few interesting selection decisions for Ernie!