25 Mar 2021

Phoenix too strong for Victory

5:49 am on 25 March 2021

The Wellington Phoenix have heaped more misey on Melbourne Victory with a 4-1 win in Wollongong to keep the Victory rooted to the bottom of the A-League table.

Clayton Lewis of the Phoenix

Clayton Lewis Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Wellington's fourth win of the season lifts them to eighth on the table.

Tomer Hemed opened the scoring in the 11th minute following a stylish Wellington team move before David Ball swept home a goal upheld after a VAR investigation for a potential handball from Alex Rufer in the build up.

Ulises Dávila grabbed Wellington's third in the 62nd minute, while Clayton Lewis made it 4-0 four minutes later, scoring his first A-League goal in a flattening blow to a visiting side with just one win from their previous seven games.

The Victory scored a consolation goal in the 76th minute.

"We played some really good football today, we exposed them in some really good areas and I think the most important thing for us was scoring four goals which will boost the confidence," said coach Ufuk Talay.

The Phoenix welcomed back for former skipper Steven Taylor in their defensive lineup, with the Englishman returning straight to the starting lineup following his return from the Indian League.

"he's a very experienced player and I think he gives us that boost in our backline and he's come striaght out of quarantine and he had four sessions before this game and so for me he's done a fantastic job in his first game playing 90 minutes."

Unfortunately the Phoenix lost Reno Piscopo to a leg injury at half time.

The Phoenix play Macarthur FC on Sunday.