Phoenix fire in A-League as Victory falter

Jan 17, 2017 - 10:47 AM The Phoenix have ended Melbourne Victory's six-game A-League winning streak in style with a 3-0 win in Wellington.

Roly Bonevacia's first-half strike on Tuesday set up a fast-paced, entertaining match at Westpac Stadium, which ended with late goals from Jacob Tratt and Kosta Barbarouses.

Phoenix co-coach Des Buckingham paid tribute to a defensive effort which laid a solid base for the win.

"It gave us the platform - we played really well defensively," he said.

"We stifled their attacking play, and they're a very good team. To be able to do that, and restrict them to only two shots on target gave us the platform to attack."

Buckingham said Wellington maintained that mindset right to the final whistle.

"We had a game plan, we stuck to it, and it worked tonight."

Victory coach Kevin Muscat made no excuses afterwards.

"We're disappointed - we set some really high standards throughout the season," he said.

"Particularly in the last six or seven weeks, we've got some really good results, scored a lot of goals and tonight we fell short of those standards."

He said the blustery winds which buffeted Westpac Stadium throughout the game were no excuse.

"We have to be better in our execution under those conditions, and we weren't. "We didn't threaten the goal enough, we encouraged Wellington to press us by keeping the ball in our back third

"All in all, I don't think we thought our way through the game well tonight."

With striker Roy Krishna, back after missing the Central Coast game through suspension, Wellington started sharply, but couldn't hit the jackpot until the 35th minute.

Krishna found space down the left then pulled back a low cross for Bonevacia, at full stretch, to toe home.

Besart Berisha and Marco Rojas between them plundered five goals in Melbourne's 6-1 early-season thrashing of Wellington, but were afforded limited opportunities in the first half as Victory struggled to find their timing.

A fired-up Victory attacked the second half with plenty of intent, but Wellington continued to push forward and created a barrage of chances.

Victory keeper Lawrence Thomas made two superb late saves but couldn't keep out Tratt's 90th-minute header from a superb Michael McGlinchey cross, then Barbarouses let fly with a 93rd-minute bullet from long range to put the icing on the cake.

For the seventh-placed Phoenix, it is their fifth win of the season while, for Victory, it is just their third loss.

Source: AAP