Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay is confident his side can still qualify for the A-League playoffs despite seeing their long-awaited homecoming end in a 4-0 defeat to Central Coast Mariners.
A crowd in excess of 18,000 turned up at Wellington Regional Stadium on Sunday to see Talay’s side on home soil for the first time in 322 days after spending the entire season on the road in Australia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in New Zealand.
But after Beni Nkololo gave the visitors a 25th minute lead, second half goals from Jason Cummings, Moresche and Matthew Hatch completed a comprehensive defeat for Talay’s side.
“For me, the supporters are very important to us and the game itself, and it’s nice that they still applauded the boys for the effort and energy that they’ve put in so far this season,” Talay said.
“We missed them dearly. It was great to come back home and play a game, but disappointed with the outcome.”
The defeat leaves Wellington fifth on 33 points in the 12-team standings, with the top six finishers advancing to the finals series in May.
Four points separate the teams from fourth to eighth and Wellington are due to take on struggling Western Sydney Wanderers in their next outing on Sunday.
“It’s a loss that we didn’t want, but at the end of the day we’re still in a great position to move forward,” said Talay.
“We’ll have a good week’s build-up leading into the game in Auckland against Western Sydney, which will give the players time to recover and the possibility for me to do some tactical sessions where we can work on a few things we need to improve.”
(Reporting by Michael Church in Hong Kong, Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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