Wellington Phoenix return to the comforts of home for their next two A-League matches against Sydney FC and Perth Glory.
Wellington Phoenix return to the comforts of home for their next two A-League matches against Sydney FC and Perth Glory.
Given they have yet to record a win in Australia this year and seven of their last 11 matches are away, getting the six points from the double-header at Westpac Stadium will be crucial to their top six aspirations.
“It’s disappointing, our form away,” admitted Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert.
“But our form at home has been great. It’s not easy for teams coming across this way.
“We’ve got to try and keep that record intact. Sydney will be disappointed after getting well beaten 4-0 (by Melbourne Heart) last week. They will be desperate. We need to be desperate.”
While Sydney’s home form may be poor their record on the road this season is excellent and a win for the Phoenix on Wednesday is by no means a given.
Sydney have lost just once in seven away games this season – 2-1 against Wellington at Westpac Stadium at the end of November when Tim Brown’s wonder goal from more than 40 metres out sealed the victory.
“They are a difficult team,” admitted Herbert.
“We have always had a very, very strong battle with them and we’ve probably been a little bit more successful at home against them. Hopefully that continues.”
The victory against the Sky Blues sparked a good run of form for the Phoenix who followed up with wins against Perth, Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets that has lifted them to fifth on the ladder.
“We’re doing OK. We’re at the halfway stage and we’re fifth and nobody picked us to be anywhere near that,” said Herbert.
“We’ve got to stay resilient. We’ve got to keep rolling with the punches. It’s a good chance for us with back-to-back home games. We’ve been good at home. We need to be better away.”
Meanwhile, Tarrawanna striker Ricky Zucco will spend the next 10 days training with the Phoenix.
Zucco, who has finished as top scorer in the Illawarra Premier League for the last two years, had his first run with the Hyundai A-League club on Tuesday.
“He’s been doing well over there. We probably would have brought him in a little bit earlier but the Christmas period is congest with games so we felt off the back of two home games he could spend a bit more time here and be a bit more settled,” said Herbert.
“He’s got some good raps. It’s his first training session this morning so he’ll spend a bit of time here and see where that ends up.”
It started off well enough with a good performance in the regular young v old game amongst the Phoenix players, Zucco scoring twice to help the “young” side to a rare victory.
“He’s a very good finisher. He’s a powerful striker,” said Paul Ifill.
“That’s only the second time the young’uns have beaten us all season. I don’t know if that bodes well or not. He was good for the young’uns. He scored a couple of goals and you can’t really ask for more than that on your first day.”
