There’s not a lot of fun to be had in losing a game where you were up 2-1 after 80 minutes. The Wellington Phoenix sure didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves on Monday night after losing 3-2 to Perth Glory. Grace Jale had to front up to the cameras straight afterwards, living up to her name with how she was able to keep it all in context after yet another agonizing defeat for the Welly Nix Wahine.

Conceded an 81st minute equaliser. Conceded an 88th minute winner. It’s no simple task to have to keep bouncing back from defeats like that. Especially for such a young team. They lost the game before that (1-0 vs Adelaide) because of a 68th minute own goal and the game before that (3-2 vs Brisbane) to an 87th minute penalty having earlier been up 2-0. Back in late December they also got dropped 1-0 by Newcastle thanks to an 82nd minute concession. All four of those defeats coming within an eight-game losing streak.

The theme of the season is that the results don’t matter. Already written heaps about that idea so no need to be doubling back. Just read that linked article again. This season has come with far too many obstacles to think the Wellington Phoenix are out there competing on an even playing field. Nah, this is a development season. With such a young squad, almost all of them new to the professional scene, the priority has always been about constant improvement from week to week and the results are merely a secondary matter.

At the same time you can’t take the human aspect out of football. Results may not be the most important thing but those players are trying to win every game they play whether it’s realistic or not. That opening game draw was a huge boost to them. To have come so close to further points several times since and to continually have it cruelly ripped away by the hands of fate... it’s hugely demoralising. We’re already talking about an inexperienced group living away from home in a foreign country during a global pandemic with fixture changes all over the place. Every subsequent loss is another setback to have to recover from. Especially the heart-breakers. Fans will be feeling that pain almost as much as the players.

However you can’t let that cloud the fact that this team is still making those steady strides forward. Three games in a row in which they were close to a result... that wasn’t happening earlier on in the season. Okay, a lot of that is down to getting some of the tougher opponents out of the way with, but still. There’s obvious growth on display. The Wahinix have scored four times in their last three matches after only one goal scored in their first six. Regardless of the recurring nightmare crushing defeats... that’s great progress.

They’ve shown what they can do defensively, particularly from within their structured sets (their big issue is the second and third phase stuff when defensive lines are stretched and the playbook goes out the window – one more example of inexperience). They’ve shown that they can string spells of possession together. They’ve shown an evolving ability to create better chances within games. They’ve even put a few more of those chances away. Nothing has changed in terms of strategy: from game one it was clear that their best attacking outlets were the high press and set pieces... sure enough that’s where those chances tend to come from. That right there is the Nix getting better with experience and repetition.

Important point to make here is that simply getting to a place where they’re competitive is not enough. The progression cannot stop here. The next step is to learn how to close out games and actually hold on to some of those leads. The results themselves still aren’t as important but they’re beginning to intersect with the team’s learning curve and, right now, are proving to be a bit of a hurdle. Something that coach Gemma Lewis hammered home in her latest press conference talking about accountability and ambition in turning these good positions into good results.

Gemma Lewis: “That one hurt but at the same time when we went back through the review and things like that, the girls watched the footage back and we had a few meetings. You could see that, as much as that one stung – a lot of them do but that one probably more so than any with the two late goals - we’ve worked through the mentality around how we stop conceding those goals, and some accountability, and looked at ourselves properly and been like: okay, what excuses do we have to be conceding goals like that at this professional level?

That stuff isn’t going to be acceptable. We’re really lucky that currently people understand the circumstance we’re in, in our first season, but at the same time we need to hold ourselves accountable in those moments and I’m hoping to see a better bounce back from that moving forward. That we’re holding ourselves accountable and now not accepting it as ‘oh we were so close and that was great to be so close’ and [instead] ‘oh it was our own undoing that stopped us from getting those points’. That’s been good for us.”

It’s tricky for the Nix because they’re a very much first-half team. They press high and exert a lot of energy and they’re doing this in a league where the pace of play is much quicker than most have experienced before. Plus they had the smallest preseason of any team. Naturally they’re gonna tire as games progress and that’s been a massive factor in the late goals that they’ve conceded. Here’s what their record would look like if games finished at certain minute-marks...

• If Games Ended After 30 Mins: 1 W | 5 D | 3 L | 3 GF | 5 GA | -3 GD | 8 PTS

• If Games Ended After 45 Mins: 2 W | 3 D | 4 L | 4 GF | 12 GA | -8 GD | 9 PTS

• If Games Ended After 60 Mins: 1 W | 4 D | 4 L | 4 GF | 15 GA | -11 GD | 7 PTS

• If Games Ended After 80 Mins: 1 W | 3 D | 5 L | 4 GF | 21 GA | -17 GD | 6 PTS

• As Things Actually Are (90 Mins): 0 W | 1 D | 8 L | 5 GF | 25 GA | -20 GD | 1 PT

Their record in first halves is actually kinda good. Two leads, both coming within the last three games, plus three more even scorelines. But things progressively get away from them in the second stanzas. One of those leads they lost about forty seconds into the half (vs Brisbane). The other they held into the 81st minute. They went on to lose both of them.

The SheNix have conceded four goals in the last ten minutes of matches and each one of them affected the outcome of the match. Meanwhile they’ve only scored once in second halves and it was the definition of a consolation goal as Ava Pritchard scored the club’s first ever banger... turning a 5-0 defeat against Newcastle Jets into a 5-1 defeat instead.

Consistency is the toughest aspect of being a pro athlete. Very few people get to that level without being capable of doing what they need to do so the ability to do it week in and week out is often what separates long careers from flashes in the pan. That applies within games too. The Phoenix are good enough to dominate for spells but a complete ninety minute performance has so far eluded them. Hell, a ninety minute performance is mostly only a myth for even the best teams. The Phoenix are still chasing a fifty minute performance, let alone ninety.

But as you can see they’re getting closer. Banging in some goals, getting leads, pushing teams deeper and deeper. The attacking thing is obvious. Goals speak for themselves... although their shot totals haven’t really changed throughout the season. They had 10 total efforts with 5 on target in week one and have not topped either of those numbers since. Granted there are shots and then there are shots and the quality of those efforts isn’t necessarily reflected in the raw tallies – compare a dribbler straight at the keeper versus a top-corner belter that forces the best save you’ve ever seen in your life... both count as one shot on target, right?

Oddly their passing rates are out of synch with their performances too. Two of their best games in terms of successful passing percentage came in their two worst defeats (5-0 vs SYD & 4-0 vs MCY)... probably a case of those two teams sitting off in the second half with the win long since secured.

But their defensive numbers are more telling...

No coincidence that the last three games have been their best efforts yet when you look at that opposition pass accuracy. Those are the three games where they’ve had the most success at breaking things up. Possession totals therefore tell the same yarns. Shots fluctuate a bit, largely due to those backs to the wall final ten mins against Brizzy and Perth, but there’s still a similar trend there (especially keeping in mind that they were 3-0 down at HT against Melbourne City and they took their foot off the gas or else the graph would tell an even more blatant tale).

This, friends, is what progress looks like. It’s not a matter of shaking anything up, quite the opposite, it’s about staying true to what they’ve been reaching for from the very beginning and making those weekly improvements. Getting more efficient and effective with each game that comes along. Which, even if it’s come with a few devastating late defeats, is exactly what we’ve been seeing. Don’t panic. Trust the process.

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