Following another glorious Wellington Phoenix victory, this time a 2-0 win over instant-rivals Western United which sent Mark Rudan home without so much as even an inspirational message left on a whiteboard (or if there was one, nobody cared), the telly coverage managed to snag Steven Taylor for a bit of a post-game chat. Now, some all time classic Phoenix moments have involved a microphone and a player straight after a game. Andrew Durante calling Adelaide’s Jeronimo a cheat after he dived in a game several years back, that one springs to mind. As does Louis Fenton’s legendary mic drop earlier in this season.

And Stevie T is always good value too, the lad loves long pins and jet skis. He’s a master at the diving defensive header/block. Always gives it a hundy on the park but he does so with a smile, not afraid to get extremely cheeky with a few trademarked moves such as the old favourite goalie obstructing on attacking set pieces. Not to mention that delightful geordie accent... which was put to good use in bartering with long-time Nix adversary Besart Berisha throughout this contest. Stevie T is the captain of this football club and he’s a beloved figure, just as he should be. I bloody adore the bastard. He’s brilliant.

But what he had to say here pointed to the brilliance of another major figure at the club. Harry Ngata tossed up a question about the effort of the lads and Taylor said that the plan had been to get after Western United straight from the start, not let them have time on the ball as was the case in the first game of the season, and really boss them from the top downwards with Taylor giving specific praise to the workrate of the two strikers, his compatriots Ball and Hooper. Then Harry mentioned how Mark Rudan had adjusted things in the second half to sit deeper and try compress the midfield and this was Taylor’s response:

“The manager knew that. I think straight away we knew exactly what they were going to do and we sucked them in. Every time they came out, they couldn’t deal with us. What we’ve got going forwards, we’ve got about three or four solutions. If they wanna sit deep we’ll pick them off and we’ll suck them in, draw them out and we’ll find the little pickets. They left too many gaps in between the lines and we exploited that.”

In other words, not only did Uffie Talay have a gameplan that worked immensely well as he tends to do each and every week but he was a step ahead of Mark Rudan even after Rudes tried to react to the effectiveness of that gameplan. My man’s playing chess while Rudy’s playing... snakes and ladders, probably. But everything Stevie T said was spot on. The Phoenix came out bubbling and almost took the lead inside sixty seconds as Ulises Davila hit the woodwork. Reno Piscopo also smacked the post with one from distance and around that it was only the reflexes of ex-Nixer Filip Kurto in goal that kept the Phoenix out. This was a scintillating first half hour, the Nix grabbing the their opponents by the scruff of the neck and then tipping them upside down and shaking the loose change from their pockets. Honestly, this is why I struggle to summon up any anti-Rudan sentiment because the Wellington Phoenix are in such a better place now under the masterful guidance of Ufuk Talay.

A goal simply had to come from all that and of all people it was Libby Cacace who supplied it. It sorta looked like he was trying to square the ball for somebody to run onto at the far post after Davila had shown some x-ray vision to chip the ball over to him in space following some scrambley stuff in the middle but the ball instead slid inside the far post for the third A-League goal of Libby’s career. The craziest thing about Libby Cacace, who also got singled out as “outstanding” by Stevie T in that post-game chat, is that I’m not sure enough people realise that he was a defensive midfielder coming up. Then he played a bit of centreback with the WeeNix but it was only when he rose to the A-League that he emerged as a genuine left-back. Now he’s probably the best left-back in the entire damn league. Stevie’s gotta put in the good word to the Newcastle United hierarchy, surely. This kid’s too good. Joint winner of the PFA Player of the Month for January too, no lies.

One thing about the Nix though, they don’t score a lot of goals. The only time they’ve scored more than twice in a game all season was when they beat Western United 3-1 the last time these two met. They’ve been held scoreless three times from 18 games, they’ve scored once on four occasions, and they’ve scored twice on ten occasions (with two losses and one draw included in that). Usually two goals is enough to win you a game of football if you have a quality goalkeeper and a reliable defence. But, you know, it’s a lot easier if you’re clear by a couple goals as you round the final bend of the match. 2-1 has been the most common result for Uffie’s Nix. That’s a lot of sweating in the crowd as the lads try to close games out, a lot of wondering if those shirts might need to go back on (although in the pouring Wellington rain on Friday night that might have been some consolation, at least).

Point being that for as dominant a half as that first one was (even if WU did get a bit more of a grip after conceding) to only be up by a single goal at that time was a tad annoying. Then to continue to only be up by a single goal deep into the second half was even more annoying. If this one had been let slip then it would have hurt more than most... and we already know from cheering from the other side of the fence that Mark Rudan loves a game where his team can just stay in touch no matter how the run of play is going and then pounce right at the end.

The rain probably helped in that regard, keeping things from getting too frantic. But it also helped that Western United didn’t really know what to do. They had no answers for the Phoenix defence who pushed them wide and away from the dangers of Diamanti and Berisha and then picked off cross after cross. One of the highlights of the game was the anguished scream from Connor Pain as he shanked yet another ball into the box midway through the second half. Funny that arguably the two finest performances of the season have come against Mark Rudan’s Western United.

And the Nix didn’t sit back either, Uffie bringing on Callum McCowatt with half an hour left (likely so as not to push Piscopo too far after he left the game in Auckland with an ankle injury... this was an unchanged team other than Tim Payne stepping back in after suspension at right back although Cammy Devlin, who also left the Eden Park game injured, was replaced with a quarter of the game remaining as well). Jaushua Sotirio also got ten minutes at the end as Gary Hooper finally maxed out – Sotirio was an unused sub last week for the first time all season, prior to missing that Western Sydney game with illness earlier in the year he had played 81.1% of all possible minutes. Since then he’s played 43% of all possible minutes. The Nix have been less potent with Sotirio on the park but he’s also been a key part of their off the ball work so it’s a balancing act, however his best role might be as an impact sub which is what it seems like he’s now settling into – largely thanks to the rise of Reno Piscopo who has started the last eight games he’s been available for.

No dramas here, David Ball scored a second goal with mere seconds left until we entered stoppage time, clinching this one and allowing fans to breathe easy over the final stages. Ball’s work was nice, gambling on the defender misplaying the ball in the swirling breeze and then finishing smoothly as Kurto rushed out to him. That’s now five for the season for Ball who is looking so confident these days. A long way from his initial second-guessing self as it took him a month and a half to find the net for the first time. But I’ve said it plenty already, ever since he scored that maiden strike he’s been one of the Phoenix’s absolute best. By the way, Ulises Davila has now gone three games without a goal... that’s his longest drought of the season. Prior to this he’d never even gone back to back games without scoring.

But the best part of the goal wasn’t any of that, it was the fact that Stefan Marinovic got the assist. A super massive punt down the field which caused him to slip over in the rain and yet the wind carried it over the defensive line and into the path of Ball. He got to his feet to see Ball going clear and was swarmed with defenders before he even had a chance to realise what he’d done. It was fantastic – half the team were huddled in celebration with David Ball at one end of the pitch and the other half were huddled in celebration with Stefan Marinovic 95 metres away at the other end.

Annoyingly the Phoenix don’t play next week. They were meant to, this isn’t a scheduled bye week, but the A-League chose to rearrange the postponed Sydney Derby for this upcoming weekend so the Sydney FC vs Welly Nix game will have to wait a couple weeks for a Wednesday night three days after the Nix host Melbourne Victory in mid-March. It’s a business decision, with the Sydney Derby sure to gather a much bigger crowd and TV numbers then than it would have as a midweek game but it’s pretty obvious that the Phoenix just got pissed on here and told it was still raining. What’s more is that All Whites play eight days later so a good chunk of the squad just had their international itineraries rapidly condensed. The Nix have a bye the following week but it could be that a few fellas get rested from that All Whites tour thanks to this. Kosta Barbarouses is also in this boat too for Sydney FC.

Oh well, so it goes. Adelaide lost to Western Sydney this weekend while Melbourne City were on a bye and Perth Glory only drew away to Brisbane so the Nix are in a three-way tie for second place with Perth and City, three points clear of Adelaide. That lack of goals mean that the Phoenix are fourth as things shake out but having kept back to back clean sheets for the first time all campaign they’re in a tantalising place. Top four is the minimum expectation right now. And in the meantime you can entertain yourself trying to predict what the inter-squad friendly that the Phoenix are gonna have next weekend instead might look like (the WeeNix also have a bye next week so it could be as simple as seniors vs reserves).

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