Josh Nisbet of the Mariners and Costa Barbarouses of the Phoenix compete for the ball. Photo: Photosport
The Wellington Phoenix and Central Coast Mariners' clash has ended in stalemate - leaving the New Zealand club two points clear on the men's A-League standings.
Neither side could find the back of the net in a tactical battle between the two top teams in front of a season-high crowd of 12,301 at Sky Stadium.
"I'll take the point," Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano said.
"Did we play our best? I'd say probably not. Did the fact that we played a couple of days earlier affect the quality? Yes, but they also went through it.
"I'm happy we didn't lose, but I go into every game thinking that the three points is what we desire.
"It was a good contest. I felt as though tactically we matched each other well. We just basically cancelled each other out."
Alex Rufer shoots at goal for Wellington Phoenix against the Central Coast Mariners. Photo: photosport
It is Wellington's sixth clean sheet of the season and comes against the highest scoring team in the league.
"It was pleasing. I felt like the gameplan did work. But when defensively you do well that's the perfect opportunity to capitalise," Italiano said.
"I didn't think we countered as well. Mind you they set up pretty well.
"I thought there was some really positive moments in that first half. I think we had two, maybe three, really good cutbacks if we go back on the video we probably should have scored.
"I was a little bit annoyed towards the end because I think we still had opportunities to get forward, but I didn't have the right personnel coming off the bench to make the impact I wanted."
It was a sloppy first half in the Wellington sunshine, both teams failing to create serious scoring opportunities, Kosta Barbarouses's wayward late header being one of few shots at goal.
The second 45 saw much the same, the Mariners forcing a couple of late saves from Alex Paulsen.
The Phoenix were without striker Oskar Zawada, who had only recently returned to the pitch, due to a groin injury and were also missing Nicholas Pennington, Sam Sutton and Mohamed Al-Taay.
The Phoenix next host the bottom placed Western United on Saturday.
