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040525
Inglorious Conclusion To Insipid Campaign
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix's Isuzu Ute A-League season ended in inglorious fashion at Sky Stadium on May 4, with the home team beaten 2-0 by bottom-placed Perth Glory as the curtain came down on a campaign which can most kindly be described as insipid, but which, in reality, was much, much worse than that.
A year ago, Giancarlo Italiano's charges came within ninety minutes of reaching the Grand Final of the competition. But a frankly disastrous close-season, which saw departing players replaced by recruits of far lesser calibre, led to a campaign laden with uninspiring play and which exposed the shortcomings of a coach who, to the disbelief of many, somehow managed to earn a contract extension at its conclusion!
Talk about rewarding mediocrity! Compiling reports on Wellington Phoenix's performances this season swiftly became a chore, in large part due to the anti-football tactics employed by "Chiefy", as Italiano is nicknamed.
Only four matches in the club's 485-game A-League history haven't been chronicled by this writer, a record unmatched among NZ's football media contributors. There were times this season, however, when the plug could well have been pulled on that sequence - unpaid scribes have far better things to do with the roughly four hours it takes to watch a match then compile a report on it, particularly when the football being played is a guaranteed cure for insomnia!
Which brings us nicely onto the game itself, one which was deservedly won by the bottom-placed visitors, who threatened to open the scoring three times in the opening ten minutes, twice through Luke Amos and latterly through Jaylan Pearman, who ignored the unmarked Adam Taggart inside him and went for glory, only to be denied by Josh Oluwayemi, soon after the goalkeeper had smothered one of Amos' twenty yard attempts.
Wellington carved out what proved to be a rare noteworthy attack in the first half in the fourteenth minute. Sam Sutton fed Hideki Ishige, who worked a one-two with Kazumi Nagasawa before sending a twenty-yarder narrowly past Oli Sail's left-hand post.
Back cam Perth, a Taggart raid opening the door for Trent Ostler, only for the versatile Corban Piper to step in at the vital moment and briefly avert the danger. For within seconds, Pearman was pulling the trigger again, forcing another Oluwayemi save in the twentieth minute.
Two goals in six minutes just after the half-hour mark were celebrated by the visitors, but only one of them counted. Ostler picked out Taggart in the 33rd minute, and he shrugged off the attentions of a defender before curling the ball beyond Oluwayemi and into the far corner of the net.
Six minutes later, a lengthy Video Assistant Referee check denied Perth a second goal, Pearman the most frustrated party after Ostler had linked up with Nikola Mileusnic, who worked a neat one-two with Taggart before pulling the ball back into the stride of the marksman.
Right on half-time, Nagasawa sent a rare Wellington shot soaring over the crossbar, giving the paltry 4190 fans present something to get excited about. Given their falling attendances, the club should seriously consider cutting its losses and opting to play the bulk of their matches at Porirua's Jerry Collins Stadium, where Wellington's women's team is based, as the sight of all those empty yellow seats at "The Caketin" is definitely not a good look.
Perth enjoyed the better of the early second half exchanges, with Matt Sheridan and Isaac Hughes both forced into hurried clearances before Oluwayemi was once more called upon, this time denying Taggart, who saw another effort blocked by
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Ishige as the visitors looked to wrap up the points.
Piper was shifted into the attack by Wellington in the second spell, and first threatened in the 54th minute, beating two players before inviting Luke Brooke-Smith to let fly. His shot was blocked to safety.
Soon after Taggart had just failed in his bid to turn home a cross to the far post after Pearman, Mileusnic and Amos had combined in Perth's latest attack, Sail was called into action for the first time in the match, the Auckland-born goalkeeper requiring two attempts to keep out an Ishige free-kick.
He instantly launched a counter-attack, with Pearman and Mileusnic combining for the benefit of Taggart once more, but Oluwayemi proved equal to his shot once more, Wellington's goalkeeper later denying Perth's goalscorer in a one-on-one situation twelve minutes from time.
Before then, however, Wellington had gone close to equalising, substitute Paulo Retre the first to threaten with a thumping twenty-yarder on receipt of Alex Rufer's measured 66th minute pass.
Six minutes later, Walker had a goal ruled out for a foul in the build-up of an attack, while soon after, a sumptuous six-man raid earned a corner from which Sam Sutton picked out Piper, whose header was blocked by Amos.
With eleven minutes remaining, Rufer's pinpoint pass presented Piper with the chance to set up Costa Barbarouses for his first shot of the match, one he fired first-time inches past the far post.
Perth returned fire four minutes later, eye-catching substitute Khoa Ngo linking with Pearman and Mileusnic, whose angled delivery beyond the far post was somehow kept in by Taggart before it crossed the by-line. Ngo was onto it in a flash, and set up Pearman for a twenty-five yard drive which sizzled inches over the crossbar.
Wellington retorted instantly, a teasing cross from Sutton pawed over his crossbar by Sail, who wasted little time in taking the goal kick awarded by rookie referee Declan Woods, this being just his second A-League appointment.
Four minutes from time, a swashbuckling run past three opponents by Barbarouses culminated in Wellington's talisman delivering a wicked low cross across the six-yard box, but with Piper and Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues closing fast, Takuya Okamoto made a timely clearance to preserve Perth's advantage.
That clearance sparked a counter-attack by the visitors, with Oluwayemi using his feet to deny Ngo as he wriggled through on goal. But when the substitute next bore down on goal, in stoppage time, Perth were celebrating as a result, for Ngo's measured pass rewarded Taggart's angled run, and his deft finish over Oluwayemi wrapped up the points for the visitors, 2-0.
Both clubs conclude their campaigns in Darwin, where qualifying ties for the 2025-26 Australia Cup will take place later in May. The bottom four teams in the A-League will be vying for a place in the next round, with Wellington taking on Brisbane Roar in their final fixture of a season the club will want to forget.
Wellington: Oluwayemi; Piper, Hughes, Wootton, Sutton; Nagasawa (Sheridan, 46), Rufer, Kelly-Heald (Retre, 64 (booked, 90)); Brooke-Smith (Sloane-Rodrigues, 64), Barbarouses, Ishige (Walker, 64)
Perth: Sail; Okamoto, Mrcela, Majekodunmi, Misao (Ngo, 82); Mileusnic (Despotovski, 90), Amos (booked, 57 (O'Neill, 75), Freney (Bugarija, 82), Ostler; Pearman, Taggart
Referee: Declan Woods
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