Football: Makeshift Wellington Phoenix hammered in Newcastle

Jaushua Sotirio attempts to evade Jordan Elsey in Newcastle. Photo / Getty Images

With eight players unavailable, last night's game at Newcastle posed the question: How good is the Wellington Phoenix's depth? After a 4-0 loss, the answer appears to be not great.

It was a poser the Phoenix were unfortunate to be facing, with four players away with the All Whites in Qatar, three injured (including skipper Alex Rufer out for the season with a knee injury) and influential attacker David Ball suspended.

Wellington coach Ufuk Talay's starting XI featured five changes from the side that lost 2-1 to the Roar in Brisbane last Saturday, with a trio on the bench who had never played at A-League level.

And in the first half, the makeshift Phoenix held their own against a lacklustre Newcastle that managed just one shot on target. But the game turned once the hosts took the lead six minutes into the second half. Five times this season, the Phoenix had gone behind, and all five times, they'd lost. Five was to become six.

Newcastle gained in confidence and Wellington grew increasingly punch-drunk as goals followed in the 64th and 67th minutes. At 2-0, it was game over. At 3-0, it became about damage control.

The match turned Newcastle's way with their 51st-minute goal. Keeper Alex Paulsen parried a Daniel Penha shot into the path of Olivier Boumal, who fired into the top corner from close range.

Wellington squandered good chances either side of the goal: Sam Sutton skewed a James McGarry cross well wide in the first minute after the break and then Jaushua Sotirio blazed over the crossbar from six yards out. Minutes later, he was replaced clutching his hamstring, another addition to the injury list.

George Ott and Jackson Manuel came off the bench in the last 20 minutes to make their A-League debuts.

While this was an extremely weakened Phoenix team, there will be disappointment at the way they collapsed in the second half.

Newcastle hammered Wellington 4-0 when the sides last met at McDonald Jones Stadium in December, playing some delightful football.

But that was the high-water mark of their season. The Jets had won just three games since and not scored more than two goals in a game — until last night.

They'd lost their last three, including 3-2 to the Phoenix in Gosford 10 days earlier — a match which appeals as a far more accurate gauge of the abilities of these two teams.

"I thought we started off the game well, first half was quite good to be honest," Talay said.

"Second half started, I think we had a good opportunity with Sutts [Sam Sutton] to maybe take the lead and then we conceded a goal.

"Then we showed how naive we are when it was 1-0, when we were still in the game, we gave the ball away and conceded the second goal from that.

"After that, I think we began to run out of legs a little bit."

This result keeps Wellington seventh, outside the playoff places on goal difference — the Phoenix now have the equal worst goal difference in the A-League, thanks largely to those two 4-0 losses to Newcastle, who are three points behind in eighth.

Talay is probably best advised to borrow a phrase from Steve Hansen — flush the dunny, welcome back his All Whites quartet from international duty and start afresh when they play Perth next weekend.

Newcastle Jets 4 (Olivier Boumal 51, 64, Beka Mikeltadze 67, Eli Babalj 83)
Wellington Phoenix 0
HT: 0-0.