Wellington Phoenix rise in most emphatic manner against Mariners

Wellington Phoenix’s goal avalanche has halted a slide down the table that threatened their place in the top-six.

Wellington Phoenix’s Roy Krishna scored two goals during his team’s 8-2 rout of the Mariners at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday night. Picture: AAP

Wellington Phoenix went in to Saturday night’s game against Central Coast Mariners clinging to sixth spot and with their finals campaign under a cloud, but emerged 90 minutes later with the look of a serious championship contender after an 8-2 rout at Central Coast Stadium.

Coming off the back of four games without a win, the Kiwis (28 points) were under threat from the surging Newcastle Jets (seventh on 26). A slip-up in what coach Mark Rudan described in the lead-up as a “possible banana skin game” could have proved costly, if not fatal.

Rudan need not have worried. Three goals in the opening 20 minutes against a shambolic Mariners, set the tone for a magical return to form for the Phoenix.

They have now skipped five points clear of the Jets. Not only that, the avalanche helped their goal difference jump from minus one to plus five, elevating them from sixth to fourth and putting them in the frame to earn a home final. The result is not just good in terms of the table for the Kiwis, but is a big confidence boost.

While coach-of-the-year candidate Rudan wasn’t about to start making rash statements as to where he believes the side will finish on the table at the end of the regular season, he remains confident his players won’t rest on what they have achieved so far.

“At the start of the season, when we crafted the culture and the environment, we knew what we wanted our identity to be — the things we needed to do right from the beginning,” Rudan said,

“Some of those things have come to fruition. But it doesn’t matter what I want, it is what those boys want … they don’t just want finals football, they want more.”

Rudan, who took the reins of the club at the start of the season and has performed a minor miracle to get them to where they are now, said he would have been happy with a one-goal win against the Mariners.

“I don’t think any coach goes into a game and expects to hit eight past the opposition,” he said.

“We worked hard not to be complacent because these can be the type of games where you can slip up. But we were ruthless.

“If you told me we would improve our for-and-against to plus six, I would have taken it. If it was plus one, I would have taken it.

“The most important thing was to get the three points. We did that so now we move on to next week. There is still a lot to play for in the final six games.”

While Roy Krishna won all the praise for his two-goal effort — he could easily have had more — Rudan preferred not to single out any player, delighting in the overall performance of the side.