A Carlo Armiento goal deep in stoppage time earned Wellington Phoenix a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Brisbane Roar in their Isuzu Ute A-League encounter at Sky Stadium on October 26, the first time in fifteen attempts that Giancarlo Italiano's team had recorded a win on home turf. As usual with Wellington, they dominate possession but do little that's productive with it, making for turgid viewing. To be brutally honest, it's the footballing equivalent of watching paint dry. They're an extremely hard watch, and one could easily doze off while doing so if one was a casual observer. Inspirational they most certainly are not! The first seventeen minutes of play saw two players encounter shoulder problems, but while Milorad Stajic made a full recovery for Brisbane, Tim Payne looks destined to endure a few weeks on the sideline after landing awkwardly. He was immediately withdrawn from the fray, and one suspects he may have collarbone damage. In between times, Brisbane should have opened the scoring in the eighth minute. Jay O'Shea's free-kick wasn't dealt with at all well by Josh Oluwayemi, prompting Georgios Vrakas to hook the ball back into the goalmouth. Samuel Klein rose to meet it, but from four yards contrived to direct his header over the net via the top of the crossbar - a bad miss, whichever way you look at it! The fast-chasing Ifanyi Eze forced Brisbane goalkeeper Dean Bouganis into a hurried clearance in the nineteenth minute, while it took a further sixteen minutes for the next attack of note to materialise. On this occasion, Hideki Ishige and Kazuki Nagasawa combined to create an opening for Armiento down the left, only for his low cross to fail to breach the first line of Brisbane's rearguard - not the last time this situation would play out for the natives. Three minutes before half-time, Brisbane broke the deadlock. A hefty James McGarry clearance was pursued by Justin Vidic, who took full advantage of some indecisiveness between the covering Manjraker James and Oluwayemi to execute a perfect lobbed volley over the goalkeeper and into an empty net. Five minutes after half-time, the visitors should have doubled their advantage. Gathering a throw-in, and with two defenders for company, Vidic worked his way to the by-line before pulling the ball back into the stride of Vrakas, who, to be blunt, butchered a great chance by miscuing his shot completely. Wellington began to step things up around the hour mark. Eze's charging run resulted in a shot which Bouganis blocked at his near post. The resulting corner was cleared to Alex Rufer, whose fifteen yard drive through a forest of legs only narrowly missed the target. Twenty minutes from time, Nagasawa volleyed past the post after another cleared Armiento corner, but six minutes later, the Japanese striker slid in to score from point-blank range after substitute Corban Piper bustled his way into the penalty area and fizzed a low cross beyond Bouganis. The goal roused the natives, who sensed that Brisbane was there for the taking. Bouganis parried successive shots from Armiento, while a super tackle from Hosine Bility - soon to depart the fray due to injury - thwarted Luke Brooke-Smith as the young substitute looked to put Wellington in front. Deep in stoppage time, the home team finally made the breakthrough they had craved. Brisbane failed to clear their lines, and substitutes Tze-Xuan Loke and Piper combined to present Armiento with the ball, inviting the new signing to unleash a low angled drive across allcomers and into the far corner of the net to clinch a 2-1 win, Wellington's first victory on home turf in 2025. Wellington:     Oluwayemi; Sheridan, James, Kelly-Heald; Payne (Loke, 17), Rufer, Roa Conchie (Brooke-Smith, 61), Armiento; Ishige (Piper, 65), Nagasawa, Eze (booked, 57) Brisbane:     Bouganis; Salas, Herrington, Stajic (Maieroni, 80 (booked, 90)), Bility (Warland, 87), McGarry (booked, 45 (Lauton, 66)); Vrakas (Burke-Gilroy, 66), O'Shea, Klein; Long (Ruhs, 66), Vidic (booked, 64) Referee:     Daniel Elder