The Wellington Phoenix have gotten a lot of bad press this season. A lot of it they brought upon themselves, a lot of it was drawn from their unstable future, some of it probably had to do with fan fatigue and the rest was just a pile on.

But we at The Niche Cache like to employ a little thing called positivity with our stuff. No point crying over spilt milk, right? We’re all bombarded with so many angry or depressing takes about pretty much everything and pretty much all the time, often in a perpetuating cycle, so we prefer a more measured, common sense approach to things – have you read our Warriors things over the last couple years? Mate, too good. So cheers to you for reading, cheers to you times two if you’re a regular reader, cheers to the Wellington Phoenix and let’s keep it on the bright side. Here are some things to throw the thumbs up at…

Superstarpreet Singh

Easy. This is the first one on the list, Sarpreet Singh was the breakout player of the Phoenix season (with due respect to Dylan Fox). It took him most of the season to earn his way into being a regular and not just an extended squad member but when he finally got a shot to prove himself he did exactly what he’d been doing in the kiwi Premiership for the reserves and scored wonderful goals.

The chorus has been out there for Singh to play more senior footy for a while now but it’s probably fair to say that he got his chance at the right time. Without as much pressure on the team to deliver results, Singh could be rotated in comfortably and protected from some of the rookie errors that any player in his position is going to make. Other teams will look to target him next season. Defenders are going to learn not to stand off him. But he’s shown that he can score and create in a variety of ways, making things happen out of nothing, and that already sets him apart from most of his teammates. His four goals in 11 games are as many as Roy Krishna scored all season. They’re more than McGlinchey, Ljujic, Ridenton, Paracki and Burns scored put together. Whoever gets the manager’s gig, they’ve got no choice now. Sarpreet’s gotta play. The time is now.

We Didn’t Come Bloody Last

It’s something to celebrate, sure. Dead last for five months of the season until the very last game when a 2-1 win over Melbourne City (who beat Brisbane to make the semis the other day) popped them one spot up over Central Coast Mariners and there you go, lock it in. Might have been a worst ever points total in a 27-game season but wooden spoons have been blessedly avoided. This is a small mercy among the looming guillotine that seems likely to fall on them in two years but you always want to finish the season on some kind of happy note and here it is. The trick now is to build upon it and get back into those playoffs next time.

Matt Ridenton, First Team Regular

You know who played the most games this season? It was Matty Ridenton. The 22 year old has always had to fit in where he can get in but finally this season he was given the chance to play a full campaign as a starting central midfielder and he produced some absolute quality along the way. Not the finished product, sure, but no player his age ever is. Ridenton made his A-League debut as a 17 year old away in Perth five years back yet played more minutes this season than he’d played combined in his Phoenix career, so cheers to Darije Kalezic for that much. Finishing was an obvious issue for him but the A-League website has him creating the seventh most chances in the league so you know he’s getting in the right positions, plus his work rate and passing are almost never in question. About time he finally got a crack at it.

Roy Krishna Re-Signed

Remember when he managed to scoop a link to the Colorado Rapids? And how he was out with a minor injury that coincided with him nearing an automatic contract extension? And how neither of those things made any sense at all unless he was trying to force the club into offering him a new contract with improved terms? And how he deserved every bit of that extension?

The good news is that it all got resolved and Roy Krishna will be playing for the Nix next season, with an extremely high possibility that he’ll pass Paul Ifill’s record goal scoring total pretty rapidly as well – he would have passed him already had he not blown a few chances in the last couple games. Krishna’s skill and speed have so often been crucial for this team, plus he’s a great example of a player making the A-League grade out of the NZ Premiership. Hey and if anyone had any bad feelings about the way he forced that new deal, know that when the Nix played the Brisbane Roar in Welly, Roy Krishna dashed all the way back, catching multiple flights, to ensure he was able to take a place on the bench having played (and scored) for Fiji away in the Philippines only two days earlier.

One More Year Of Andy Durante

Similarly we’ve had verbal confirmation from Andrew Durante that he’s coming back for one last swing at it, no doubt not wanting to end his career on the bum note of the last two campaigns. Club captain and a veteran of 248 games for the club (not to mention another couple seasons at the Newcastle Jets, making him the A-League’s most experienced ever player). Got to keep that sort of leadership around at a transitional time such as this, especially with so many young players stepping up into the first team – the first team defence this season had 35 year old Dura alongside 24 year old Dylan Fox and flanked by 25 year old Tom Doyle and 22 year old Scott Galloway. The club cannot afford to be as reliant on Dura as it has been in recent years but getting him back again is still massive.

Foxy Dylan

Dylan Fox gets his turn now. Foxy was voted the Player’s Player of the Season by his comrades and you know that the players always love a nuggety defender who puts in the fully hundy every week. Don’t want to put unwarranted pressure on the lad but shades of Ben Sigmund here, have to admit it. In the 12 games in which Fox started this term, the Nix won four, drew two and lost six. Doesn’t sound great but 14 points from 12 games is a damn sight better than the 7 points they got from 15 games without him. Just one victory in the 15 games he didn’t start. Then chuck in that the Nix conceded 23 times in 12 games, at an average of 1.91 per contest, with Fox in the lineup and 32 from 15 without him at 2.13/gm and that’s an improvement on that count too. Not bad for a player who didn’t even keep a clean sheet this season.

Return of the Burns

Old mate didn’t even score a goal in the 15 games he played after making a shock mid-season return to the Nix but there were glimpses in there of the Burnsy of old. Makes you lick your lips at the possibility of this dude next season, because he signed on a two year deal (well, one and a half), when he’s had a full preseason and got a full-time manager to work with. Expect a plethora of Simpsons-flavoured Burns puns in next season’s TNC Phoenix stuff… which you can give a big ol’ boost to by slapping an ad or dropping a pledge on Patreon. Cheers to you.

A Well-Stocked Academy

Can’t complain about this sucker. As well as Sarpreet Singh and Matt Ridenton there were also A-League minutes on offer for Liberato Cacace, Keegan Smith, Logan Rogerson, Alex Rufer, Ollie Sail and Tom Doyle (if he’s still young enough to really count). All of them had their moments and all of them are prospects worth watching out for, be it at the Nix or elsewhere. Willem Ebbinge, Sam Philip, James McGarry, Liam Moore and Ollie Whyte are all fellas to watch out for down the line too. It’s a fantastic production line and they do it with no help from the national body, did you know? Oh yeah you did know that because Rob Morrison had a moan about it in that denial-which-wasn’t-a-denial thing.

The FFA Are Getting Tanked By FIFA

This is a huge positive. Right now it feels like there’s no chance of hitting the metrics to keep the Nix in the league. Attendances are down across the board and the Phoenix are supposed to be improving theirs, it ain’t likely to happen. But the clubs are all pissed with the FFA, the fans are all pissed with the FFA and, best of all, FIFA are pissed with the FFA. Which has led the international governing body to appoint an independent chairperson who will lead a panel that’ll hopefully reform the whole organisation after FIFA found them to be lacking in ‘democratic process and transparency’. No kidding. And new governance might just mean new hope for the Phoenix. More than they have under the current buggers who seem to like to scapegoat the Wellington team whenever they find the microscope on themselves.

Great Goals and Moments of Magic

No season is ever without them. Those times when you can say: I saw that happen. Savour the little things that make football such a wonderful and beautiful game.

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