The Wellington Phoenix football club's brief revival in the A-League has been halted in the rain in Sydney after going down 3-1 to Sydney FC.
Sydney led 1-nil at half time and their third was controversial when there was an obvious hand-ball.
The Phoenix got a consolation goal in the 82nd minute through Dylan MacAllister.
Wellington remain 7th in the standings, one place ahead of Sydney.
Meanwhile bottom placed North Queensland Fury scored a 2-1 win over a depleted Gold Coast United in front of the lowest ever A-League crowd on Australian soil of just 17 hundred.