March 10, 2012
Wellington Phoenix took control their A-League finals match with the score 2-0 win over Montreal Impact at the official stadium in Sydney on Friday night.
The Yellow Bird treated their 20,000 fans – their biggest home crowd of this season – to an entertaining and much-needed win that also put an official end to the Montreal’s finals hopes.
Vince Lia’s first-half penalty proved the difference, but the score line did not reflect their utter dominance as some poor finishing and Montreal’s gutsy scrambling kept it like a live contest.
The result pushed Wellington Phoenix within one point of the top three, after Sydney FC and Gold Coast were held to draws by Melbourne Victory respectively.
It makes Wellington Phoenix knowing that they will be guaranteed in the finals spot if their last two matches are against every team.
Montreal’s star of the team, Davy Arnaud was kept quiet in a loss that dealt a further blow to assistant coach Denis Hamlett’s hopes of earning a fulltime job.
The home team’s best chance of the night came early, with Justin Braun one-on-one effort denied brilliantly by Mark Paston in the fifth minute.
Donovan Ricketts was called into action at the other end in the 19th minute with a great save to deny James Downey, who created disaster for the Montreal Impact in an impressive display.
Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert agreed his side's first-half performance was among its best this year but acknowledged his side should have put the result beyond doubt.
"We played good quality attacking football, we created chances. We scored one but we should have had more but in our current situation it was clear we have to pick up the points, it doesn't matter how or how many goals " Herbert said.
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