Wellington Phoenix had numerous chances against Melbourne City but were made to pay for their wastefulness in a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Isuzu UTE A-League leaders as Ufuk Talay bemoaned the result.
City has prevailed in a ding-dong battle in Wellington, where the reigning premiers emerged triumphant on the back of record-breaking Jamie Maclaren and his two-goal haul at Sky Stadium on Monday.
Maclaren became the first player in A-League Men history to score in nine consecutive games after Mathew Leckie cancelled out David Ball’s inventive backheel to open the scoring.
However, the final scoreline could have been anything, with Nix striker Oskar Zawada missing a raft of chances, including from a heart-in-the-mouth slip from Tom Glover.
“We created enough chances to win two games today,” Talay said post-match.
“You’ve got to score goals to win games.
“We could defend for 90 minutes and walk away with a point but the reality is you need to score one more goal than the opponent to win a game. So we’ll still play attacking football.”
For the first time this season, City conceded first but the high-flying side rallied for yet another win.
City are four points clear atop the table, and with a game in hand.
“It was a very hard game… it was all hands on the pump towards the end,” City head coach Rado Vidosic said.
“Our backline was fantastic and we had to be desperate at some moments. All credit to our defenders.”
