Captain Andrew Durante has called on his Wellington Phoenix side to take their home form on the road this season, starting with their Hyundai A-League match against Brisbane Roar on Friday night.
The Phoenix have become an extremely difficult team to beat on their home turf over the past two years, turning Westpac Stadium into fortress.
They have not lost at the venue since October 2008 – an unbeaten run of 21 Hyundai A-League games.
But they have been unable to replicate that kind of consistency when they cross the Tasman and last season managed just three wins in 14 regular season games in Australia.
They drew five times and lost six matches including heavy defeats to Melbourne Victory (0-4), Brisbane Roar (1-4) and Sydney (1-3).
Durante wants to see that trend reversed.
“I don’t think there’s any secret or anything we really need to change. We’ve just got to concentrate and play the way we play at home,” the skipper said.
“We’ve got to be confident and just go out there and play our game and not get caught up in the travelling.”
“We give ourselves enough time to get there and prepare right so there’s no magic secret to getting results away. We’ve just got to be focused for the full 90 minutes.”
The Phoenix have had a good start to the current campaign managing a 3-3 draw in terrible conditions against Gold Coast United and a 2-0 win over Central Coast Mariners after a first round bye.
Brisbane though, will provide a different challenge this weekend given the size and pace of players such as former Phoenix player Costa Barbarouses and Roar skipper Matt McKay, who got on the score sheet last weekend with the winner against Sydney.
“We’ve got to close them down and not give them space on the ball,” said Durante. “If we suffocate them trying to win the ball back then it’s going to stop their play and benefit us.”
“We are confident we can continue the way we’re going. We’ve had a great start to the season and we’ve just got to improve our away record and this is the start of it.”
The Phoenix left for Brisbane on Wednesday boosted by the inclusion of goalkeeper Mark Paston in the squad.
The 33-year-old All Whites keeper had been in doubt with a groin injury suffered during the Central Coast game but came through a fitness test and is expected to start ahead of new signing Danny Vukovic.
Reserve keeper Griffin McMaster drops out of the squad that beat the Mariners.
Coach Ricki Herbert hinted at the likelihood of having an unchanged starting line-up for the third week in a row but young striker Mirjan Pavlovic is making the trip and is likely to feature on the bench.
“I think Pav will cause defenders problems. He keeps the pressure at the top for you,” he said.
“He’s very keen and he’s been training really well and if he we do inject him off the bench he won’t let us down.”
