Ben Old of the Phoenix Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Wellington Phoenix men have restored their three point lead at the top of the A-League table with a 3-2 win over Adelaide United in Wellington.
Ben Old scored a brace for the Nix either side of Oskar van Hattum's maiden A-League goal.
Van Hattum found the back of the net within a minute of coming off the bench after head coach Giancarlo Italiano made a quadruple substitution to try and break a 1-1 deadlock.
"I said 'I'm not happy with the draw, I need to win the game here because we're at home and we need to take the initiative'," Italiano said.
"The way the game was going at that time I just felt the group needed that injection and my objective was to win the game.
"Because we're a team first and a collective I had no doubt that when those boys came on they were going to give 100%. That was what we needed at the time and they did very well.
"I felt as though Oskar van Hattum and Kosta [Barbarouses] are great subs to come off the bench.
"And Fin Conch (Conchie) coming on in the middle [I thought] he'd give us a little bit with the ball and he's the one that pinched the ball for the first goal so I was very happy.
"I'm very happy with Oskar van Hattum scoring his first goal as well. I think he deserves it. He's been doing exceptionally well."
Wellington now have 40 points, just one shy of the tally the Phoenix managed in the 2019-20 season, when they finished a club-best third on the ladder.
And there are still seven rounds remaining this campaign, with 21 more points up for grabs.
Meanwhile, the Phoenix women were unable to recover from a lacklustre first half showing, suffering their 10th defeat of the season.
The Phoenix were beaten 5-3 by Melbourne Victory in Melbourne, after trailing 4-0 at halftime.
Head coach Paul Temple is at a loss to explain his side's first half performance.
"The first half was probably the furthest away from where we want to be," Temple said. "There was very little belief in what we were doing, and we conceded some really sloppy goals.
"It was very, very disappointing and the girls were extremely disappointed with themselves as well. We didn't really put anything together and they've got such great players that were really hurting us.
The result leaves the Phoenix women 10th on the A-League ladder, five points adrift of the last of the finals places.
