Wellington Phoenix: nine matches unbeaten

Wellington Phoenix faced Western Sydney Wanderers at Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. The WeeNix were trying to remain unbeaten for the ninth straight match to tie the club-record unbeaten run of nine matches – and they did it.

David Ball was not available due to a hip flexor injury while Reno Piscopo missed the match because he is at AFC U23 Tournament in Thailand. Jaushua Sotirio and Callum McCowatt came up to the starting eleven to face Wanderers.

It was an special match because Wellington Phoenix announced that they will donate $2 for every ticket purchased for this match in order to raise funds in support of relief and recovery efforts for victims of the bushfire. The fans really helped as it was the highest home attendance at Sky Stadium in the 2019-20 A-League season.

Phoenix started very well and Mexican Ulises Dávila hit the post with a long shot. After some minutes he opened the scoreboard with another long shot from the same region of the pitch he hit the post.

The half time arrived with Phoenix leading by 1-0. Second half was not a good one for WeeNix but they managed to hold Western Sydney Wanderers attack in a good defensive performance of Ufuk Talay’s squad.

One of the biggest news came up in the middle of the second half when Wellington Phoenix Reserves captain Sam Sutton replaced Jaushua Sotirio in the 67th minute. Sutton is a very talented 18 years old attacking midfielder and it was his second ever appearence in Hyundai A-League. His first appearence was on December 21 against Sydney FC but he did not play more than five minutes so the match against Wanderers was the first opportunity to watch him playing for a considerable amount of time.

Despite the bad performance in the second half, Wellington Phoenix scored the second goal after an outstanding effort by Liberato Cacace to seal the 2-0 win with a nice goal in the 88th minute. You can check the full highlights by clicking here.

It was Cacace’s first goal of the season and his second ever goal for Wellington Phoenix in 45 matches. The important win took the Nix to the third position in A-League’s table with 21 points in thirteen matches. Phoenix come back to pitch on January 18 against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium.