5 Mar 2022

Phoenix women's debut season ends in defeat

6:42 am on 5 March 2022

The Wellington Phoenix women's team have finished their maiden A-League season with a 3-1 loss to Perth.

Grace Jale of the Phoenix and Erica Halloway of the Wanderers during the A-League Women's match. 2021.

Photo: AAP IMAGE

The Phoenix trailed 3-nil midway through the second half in Wollongong on Friday night, before Grace Jale scored a consolation goal from the penalty spot in the closing stages.

Wellington finish their debut season with 11 losses, two wins and one draw.

They now await the result of Sunday afternoon's match between Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne City to see where they finish on the ladder.

The Phoenix currently sit bottom of the table, but will swap places with the Wanderers if City win by six or more goals.

Perth led 1-0 at halftime courtesy of an unfortunate Wellington own goal and the Glory scored twice in three minutes early in the second-half to all but kill off the game.

Phoenix head coach Gemma Lewis told said post-game that it "wasn't our greatest performance" and the score line "was probably a fair reflection of the game".

"We knew the two day turnaround was going to be hard and to get an own goal in the first half wasn't really something that set us on the greatest path.

"As soon as it went two-nil the girls went quite flat. I think it's hard when you have a two day turnaround to find that second gear when you're two-nil down to drive and get three goals.

"I was hoping they could do it with the adrenaline and the emotional charge of it being the last game, but they've given so much for us throughout the season that it didn't really surprise me that they didn't have much left in the tank at that point."

Jale's goal is her fourth in as many games and sees her finish as the team's top scorer with six.

"She had that agreement with Jitka [Klimková] (Football Ferns coach) to score three goals in [the final] six games and I think she's come away with five," Lewis said.

"She's delivered and more. We're super happy with her. She's been on a roll."