One of the recurring themes of the early days of this season has been a young Wellington Phoenix team struggling to find the rewards for all their hard work. Strikers battling away but not scoring goals. Defenders keeping things tight without a single clean sheet. Single goal defeats in each of the first four games. It’s tricky with a new team with a new coach because it takes time to adjust to everything but time is not something you get a whole lot of before the pressure gets overwhelming. You’ve gotta release the valves now and then, get a scrappy win when perhaps you weren’t at your best. Build that confidence and belief.

The Phoenix did that last week with that 2-1 victory over Brisbane Roar, which was huge in getting that first three-pointer on the board but the Nix did make it harder than it needed to be considering they were at home against a team in a similar situation to themselves. But away to Adelaide... yeah that’s one that’ll get some eyebrows raised around the league. The Phoenix now have their first genuine statement result of the season.

This is an Adelaide team that had won four straight A-League games, beating Newcastle (2-1 away), Brisbane (1-0 at home), Central Coast (3-1 away), and Melbourne Victory (3-1 at home). All that immediately after a 4-0 win in the FFA Cup final to lift that trophy, Melbourne City the vanquished foe on that day. With the league in a strange state at the moment - currently the defending premiers Perth are sitting last while two teams in the top five are on three-game losing streaks - Adelaide have been one of the form sides out there. And the Phoenix just beat them in their own city.

Not only that but these fellas have been a bogey team of sorts for the Nix. It had been five years since the Phoenix last beat Adelaide in Adelaide and their record at home in recent times has been no better. This is what happened the last 12 times the Nix have played against ADL...

Dec 2015 – Lost 3-0 away
Mar 2016 – Lost 3-0 at home
Dec 2016 – Lost 2-0 away
Jan 2017 – Drew 0-0 at home
Jan 2017 – Drew 2-2 away
Oct 2017 – Drew 1-1 at home
Jan 2018 – Lost 1-0 at home
Mar 2018 – Lost 3-1 away
Nov 2028 – Lost 3-1 at home
Jan 2019 – Drew 0-0 away
Apr 2019 – Lost 3-1 away

And now...

Dec 2019 – Won 1-0 away

So bloody get that into ya, here’s the kind of result that can really kickstart a season, similar to how that 3-1 win away to Sydney FC almost exactly a year ago did the same thing... on that note...

Points after seven games under Ufuk Talay: 7

Points after seven games under Mark Rudan: 8

Also with that aforementioned chaos beneath the two runaways at the top of the ladder, Sydney and Melbourne City (both of whom the Nix have already played), the Nix are now up to ninth and only three points off fourth. The table doesn’t really take proper shape until about ten games in but it shows that if the Nix can extend this three-game run without defeat and keep tallying up the points then away we go.

It’s not just the win though, it’s how they did it. After an initial period of maybe twenty to thirty minutes during which the home side looked like they were ready to put four or five past Big Stef, the Nix survived unscathed with arguably the best chance or two having actually fallen their way against the run of it. Then having survived all that they began to take some genuine control of proceedings. Ulises Davila was once again in the midst of it all, getting heaps of touches in heaps of dangerous areas (more touches than any other Nix player which was tantalising) and there was go-forward from both the central midfielders.

Also getting in on the act was Reno Piscopo, making his second start of the campaign in place of Callum McCowatt in the only change from last week. Which... yeah, frustrating not to see McCowatt starting when he’s been playing pretty well, but then from the other angle Piscopo deserves a chance too. McCowatt’s started five out of seven games and come off the bench in the others, Piscopo has started two and been subbed off at half-time of one of them (also playing three times off the bench). Plus this is a sign of the (admittedly unproven) quality in this squad because Piscopo’s got plenty to him. A more natural winger than McCowatt, which was probably a factor as the Nix adapted their usual system to a 4-2-3-1 shape for this one, and also a guy who can beat defenders, deliver dangerously into the box, and who can play at different tempos.

But you do have to wonder if maybe McCowatt and Piscopo ought to both be starting because we’ve seen a lot of Jaushua Sotirio so far and it’s not quite clicking. It’s the same old story every time, this dude looks fantastic in the build up and then he gets into the penalty area and forgets how to play footy. Poetically he almost won a penalty but of course it turned out the contact was made outside the area because it’s Sotirio so of course it was – he’d have already bundled it out for a goal kick otherwise. It was that one on one he wasted in the first half though, that was the infuriating one. He didn’t even look like scoring. And going back into the sheds at 0-0 after how they’d finished the half... easy to suspect the Nix might come to regret not having anything to show for it. Especially when Adelaide then made two half-time changes to alter the flow of things and even more so when Nikola Mileusnic scored that incredible volley a dozen minutes into the second spell. That was special. And if the Nix had tumbled to a two or three goal defeat from there it wouldn’t have been a shock – that goal was a pure example of ‘not gonna be your day’ potential.

What happened instead was magical. On came Gary Hooper (in place of midfielder Matti Steinmann) but it was the old crew who turned it up, Sotirio dishing one in for David Ball whose shot snuck in under keeper Paul Izzo (aka Benji Marshall’s long lost half-brother) and okay sure it should have been saved. It was a relatively tame effort from Ball. But like a few of these fellas, Ball has been one of the culture leaders with his intense workrate for basically zero reward. He was due a lucky break eventually. The whole damn team was. And then just like London buses... the Cacace penalty... definitely a brush on the arm but there was bugger all in it. Still, the more proactive team found that luck was in their favour and Ulises Davila did the rest from the spot.

+3 🎯& ⚽🥅 vamooos...
Seguimos banda.!! 💪🏼🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/IPA4G2CW9s
— ulises davila (@uli_davila) December 2, 2019

By the way, the record for consecutive games scored in for the Phoenix is four. Jeremy Brockie did it in 2012 and Roy Krishna did it in 2014. Ulises Davila has scored five goals in seven games including in the last three games in a row. Next up the Nix play a Western Sydney team that won three in a row to start the season but have lost three in a row with a draw before that ever since. They’ve conceded multiple times in each of those three defeats. There’s an Ulises/Ulysses Molly Bloom joke in there somewhere but not sure it’ll make it past the censors.

Then they held on. No silly late errors, in fact the Nix were more likely to bag a third than Adelaide were to get an equaliser on the balance of it. This was the real beauty of this result – the Nix played seriously well, orchestrating a very clever gameplan from Uffie to damn near perfection (some messy finishing at times aside). Adelaide came out looking to get numbers forward and really hassle the fella in possession but the Phoenix, mate, they just passed their way around it and then in the process they created space to attack into at speed. It was gorgeous. Majestic, even. It was also the kind of tactical approach that the Nix didn’t have under Mark Rudan, whose teams were all heart but tended to lack the nous to beat teams better than them (26 out of 40 points against the four teams below them on the ladder, including 8 of their 11 wins). Uffie, it seems, doesn’t have that limitation... and that, friends, was the most enticing thing from a long list of enticing things to come out of this game.

Some more stray thoughts...

Riley McGree has scored six goals this season but in 77 minutes of action he only had four more touches of the ball than his own goalkeeper had. The Nix shut him all the way down and Adelaide struggled to find alternative options in attack.

This was the first game this season in which Ben Waine hasn’t played any part of – he’d been subbed on in each of the first six games (totalling 77 mins). The Nix still have seven players who have started every single game.

A second excellent performance in a row from Alex Rufer, who was out there calling the shots and being a leader too. Lovely to see after a bit of a slow start from him under Uffie.

Nothing new to add about Ulises Davila, only to repeat that he’s been fantastic for at least a month now and he seems to be getting more and more involved with every game.

That nutmeg from Reno Piscopo to put Libby through for the penalty... *Italian chef’s kiss*

All that about Uffie designing a tactical victory... but also can’t forget that the Nix came from a goal down to make this happen and away from home as well. Responding swiftly and brutally to a setback is a sign of a good team, refusing to accept negativity and taking initiative over their own fortunes. Which is something we definitely did see a lot of under Mark Rudan... so, like, best of both worlds then. Bloody lovely.

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