In any other ASB Premiership game, the draw would have felt like kissing one's sister but yesterday's cliffhanger should have felt like a victory for the Hawke's Bay franchise, if not for coach Brett Angell.
Perhaps the best person to put the humdinger in perspective was Bay United goalkeeper Joshua Hill who had conceded only one goal from four previous games only to have five put past him - the final one came in the 56th minute from a disputed penalty kick from Joel Stevens.
A grinning Hill, after the game, revealed he was beginning to question his ability to take goal kicks because shots hung in the air well before the halfway mark and often curled back several metres when gravity prevailed.
"It just goes to show how much impact the wind had when we started scoring in the second half."
Not one to doubt his confidence regardless of how many goals are slotted past him, Hill had hollered at his teammates on the park after every goal in the first half.
"I was just trying to get them motivated. I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet here but I saw their heads down [in the changing room at halftime] so I told them, 'Hey, guys, we can do it because there's still 45 minutes to go'," he said.
When play resumed, Hill said he got on the case of "classy" playmaker Tom Biss who had the propensity to fire up the lads "when he gets his head right".
Ironically Biss, who played striker and then slipped to the wing, told the goalkeeper to put a cork on it.
"Just as the first goal went in, Bissy looked at me. It just showed that self-belief that went through the whole team."
Hill said yesterday's result had consolidated Bay United's mind set that when the chips were down they need not chuck in the towel.
A despondent Phoenix captain, Troy Danaskos, said anytime a team led 4-0 at the breather they should be collecting three points, after the visitors immediately disappeared into the changing changing rooms to hold up media proceedings in an encounter televised on SkySport 3.
Asked if Phoenix would have done anything different coming out in the second spell, Danaskos replied: "Look, I think we did the best we could."
It was a day when nine goals were scored with the wind and most of the goals, uncannily, came from crosses from the right flank only to find defenders reduced to spectators as it found scorers unmarked on the far post.
The visitors drew first blood in the ninth minute, Stevens pouncing on the ball following a goalmouth melee to drill the ball into the net from point-blank range.
In the 18th minute, Phoenix Reserves made it 2-0 after the Bay defence gave Tamupiwa Dimairo all the time and space in the world on the right flank to work his way into the box before surging to the goal line to deftly cross to Max Mata to score.
A minute later Bay midfielder Bihanu Taye headed a ball but a defender pushed it off the line.
Mata struck again to extend the lead to 3-0 in the 26th minute in similar fashion to the second goal except this time it was Stevens cutting it obliquely from the line for the tap in.
The Bay had another chance in the 36th minute when leftback Kohei Matsumoto received a ball from Taye to put it across the face of the goalmouth but striker Sam Mason-Smith's header glanced wide off the far post.
An air of disbelief crept in at the stroke of halftime when Logan Rogerson tapped the ball in on the far post from another yawning cross from the right flank.
Angell took out Khair Jones to inject striker Hamish Watson who, two minutes into the second half, pumped in a goal from the far post to make it 4-1.
Another two minutes later, it was captain Corey Chettleburgh's turn to drill a goal from the top of the 18m box following a cornerkick to narrow the deficit to 4-2.
Then, within minutes, Watson, showing traits of his old aggressive self, and Biss missed sitters.
In the 56th minute, Stevens muted the crowd with a deft penalty kick for a 5-2 lead amid protests from Hill, who later said he didn't think defender Sean Liddicoat was culpable.
In the 67th, Nix defender Dylan Fox took an early shower after a crude tackle to bring down Watson but, in his defence, Danaskos said Fox had to commit a professional foul deny the hosts a potential goal.
Bay centre-mid Zane Sole, having solid game, got the vociferous crowd back on track with a pearler of a freekick that beat goalkeeper Oliver Sail, 5-3.
In the 72nd minute, Mason-Smith made good a Matsumoto cross from the right flank as the crowd went wild, 5-4.
The pretty-passing Nix game suddenly looked gnarled after a defender brought down substitute Jade Mesias for a yellow card.
Two Watson chances and as many cornerkicks went begging in the last 12 minutes before the 5-5 equaliser came from Mason-Smith in the second minute of three minutes of added time.
It was an outstanding stage for televised football.
While three points would have soothed Chettleburgh and his troops, the reality is the franchise cannot put in money or winning value the mileage gleaned from the showcase.
Bay United operations manager Matt Hastings revealed 704 fans came through the turnstiles on a day the players turned it on to take the side to the top of the table above premiership favourites Auckland City.
Hastings said the record turnout at the Park Island venue was more than 1000 when, again, Phoenix Reserves played three summers ago but, in that mid-week affair, there was always the promise of pedigree players from the A-League squad.
No doubt, footy lovers will turn out to watch the next home game on January 10, against Team Wellington, but the Bay play Waitakere United away on Thursday first.
