Football: Early form hopeful but we must reproduce it for season - Durante

Manny Muscat (left) of the Phoenix tussles with Newcastle's Massadio Haidara at Westpac Stadium.

Few people will remember the good work of your pre-season if it all falls apart when the bright lights start to shine.

The challenge for the Wellington Phoenix during the next two-and-a-half months will be finding a way to bottle their promising form from the Football United Tour and translate it to success in this year's A-League campaign when they start on October 12.

Wellington's 2-1 win over West Ham United last Wednesday and their 1-0 loss to Newcastle in Wellington on Saturday showed they could match it with two of the English Premier League's established sides.

Granted, the results could be brushed off as "only pre-season" but the Phoenix showed notable sharpness, particularly the continued partnership of central defenders Andrew Durante and Ben Sigmund, Alex Rodriguez's midfield play and the depth they will possess on their bench this summer.

"We've set a benchmark now that we can compete against good teams and play really good football," Durante said.

"So it'd be disappointing if we left it all in these two pre-season games.

"We had a tough season last year and getting in early, having these games and getting our squad together nice and early, is going to reap rewards and if we continue how we've played over the last two games it could be a very exciting season."

Left back Tom Doyle took his chance with two strong performances last week and should be signed to a full-time contract soon, which solves another problem Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick faced last year as his side struggled to ninth place.

New signing Roly Bonevacia will arrive in Wellington soon and, should the club find a way to sort out Michael McGlinchey's contract saga and get him officially on the books, the Phoenix will have a squad with true potential.

The A-League is an ever-evolving beast and Merrick's side need to keep up with the likes of the Brisbane Roar and the Western Sydney Wanderers, while the big-spending Melbourne City have caught the eye in the off-season.

A crowd of 30,968 were on hand for Saturday's doubleheader at Westpac Stadium, which also included Sydney FC upsetting West Ham 3-1 before the Phoenix and Newcastle met.

The tour, which included Newcastle beating Sydney 4-0 in Dunedin on Tuesday, required a mountain of administrative work from the Phoenix, notably general manager David Dome.

The games were broadcast on pay-per-view in New Zealand, while the feed was also picked up internationally, which helped the Phoenix recover the costs of the tour.

There were only 19,183 people in attendance to watch Wellington beat West Ham at Eden Park, which was slightly lower than hoped, while about 10,000 attended Newcastle's win over Sydney in Dunedin.

"We are pretty sure that we wouldn't have made money out of it," Dome said of the tour.

"I'm not exactly sure where we are going to end up, we have to wait for a couple of numbers to come through, including the pay-per-view numbers," he said.

"It was a magnificent tour off the field. The contacts we made and the experiences we had with these two clubs and the profile of the Phoenix has been raised and that was all very, very positive."