Soccer: Away games to test Phoenix

Wellington's Leo Bertos fends off Luke Devere. Photo / Getty Images

The Wellington Phoenix have a difficult period ahead with a series of away games but they hope re-signing up to six players will be straightforward.

Wellington suffered their first defeat of the season when they were beaten 1-0 in Brisbane on Friday night - the first of four away matches in five games.

Winning away from home is difficult for every side, as Wellington have shown with a 21-game unbeaten streak in the capital, but the Phoenix will want to collect a handful of points when they meet Perth (A), Sydney (H), Melbourne Victory (A) and Melbourne Heart (A) in the next three weeks.

While this is going on, the club will enter talks to re-sign Mark Paston, Tim Brown, Tony Lochhead, Ben Sigmund, Chris Greenacre and Troy Hearfield, who are all off contract at the end of the season.

"I want to re-sign them all," coach Ricki Herbert said, "and the sooner the better. If it drags out, it can get into October and then the market opens up and it can become more difficult. I would like to get all the guys sorted out by the start of October and I have told the chairman [Terry Serepisos] that."

All six are regulars, although Hearfield has had to be content with time off the bench this season. It will be important to keep the New Zealand flavour with All Whites Paston, Brown, Lochhead and Sigmund.

Wellington have 20 players on their books and Herbert said he wanted to keep the three remaining spots open until the January transfer window to assess what sort of player he might want then.

Socceroos defender Jade North has not yet joined the Phoenix. He will be released by his Norwegian club after this weekend but will play two internationals for Australia in Europe before heading to Wellington. He'll be here in time for the Sydney match on September 11 but it's uncertain if he will play then.

Right-back Manny Muscat will miss next Sunday's trek to Perth as he's on international duty with Malta. Hearfield is likely to replace him in what could be the only change.

Wellington looked decent at times against Brisbane but struggled to exert themselves and establish any sort of rhythm. Paston made a couple of fine saves in the first half but could do little about the goal from former Wellington striker Kosta Barbarouses.

Brisbane weren't among the title favourites pre-season but went to the top of the table after two wins and a draw.

Much has been made of Wellington's difficulties on the road. They have a terrific home record, particularly over the last two years, but have only eight wins and seven draws from 37 matches away.

"We will start to win away," said Herbert, who would like to bank four points from the next three away games. "But the league is like that. Very few sides win away from home. We have proved that by the fact we have gone 21 games unbeaten in Wellington. Sides haven't worked out how to win here."

Regardless, Wellington have not yet found their form this season. They conceded two late goals against Gold Coast to draw 3-3, never looked like losing but lacked any real flow in a 2-0 defeat of Central Coast and played in fits and starts against Brisbane.

"We are better than that," Herbert said, "and better than we were against Central Coast. The potential of this group is very high but players have to perform to live up to that.

"We are at the start of a tough period but I don't think that's a bad thing for us.

"We are being thrown in at the deep end and we have to swim rather than rely on the safety of Westpac Stadium where the pressure is off.

"With 30 games this season, 40 points might get you into the playoffs so we need to nick a few points on the road."