A week from hell ended in a garden of roses for the Wellington Phoenix last night.
The side may still be on the bottom of the A-league, but after a five day period when it lost its founding coach and then slipped out of the playoff picture, any points would have been welcome.
Three came rolling in last night at Forsyth Barr Stadium as the Phoenix beat the Melbourne Heart 1-0.
Any sort of win would have been appreciated, given their recent history, so to come away with the three points was more than satisfying.
But anything other than a Phoenix victory would have been an injustice. It was far the better team, having clear-cut chances in both halves, and stringing together some nice ball movement.
If the Heart had managed a draw, let alone a win, it would have been a daylight robbery. It struggled throughout and continued its dreadful away record.
The Melbourne side has not won a game away from home for more than a year and never looked like breaking that record last night.
The Phoenix could have had the match wrapped up by halftime, as it hit the crossbar twice and also a post in the opening 45 minutes.
The Heart offered little in attack and was too slow to the 50-50 balls.
Its best chances, and there were few of them, came from long shots and it failed to create a clear-cut chance in the penalty area.
On the other hand, the boys from Wellington were precision right from the opening whistle.
The Phoenix made nothing short of a cracking start and there was purpose and endeavour in its work. Attacking players were finding gaps in a Heart defence which was too ponderous.
Jeremy Brockie, Paul Ifill and Stein Huysegems up front were finding holes in and around the Heart defence and managed to move the ball well across the pitch.
Brockie hit the crossbar after two minutes and Huysegems did the same with a nice header after quarter of an hour.
The only goal of the game came just before the 20-minute mark.
Ifill received the ball down the left and shipped in a curving ball, which Brockie hooked into the back of the net on the bounce.
A couple of minutes later it was so nearly two goals up, when Huysegems bumped over a defender and went straight through on goal.
His shot thumped the post and came back out.
The Heart could get nothing going in its attack but the further the game went on the more the Australian side came into it.
With the year the Phoenix has had to endure, one got the feeling the Heart would nick a goal towards the end to tie it up.
Big Heart defender Patrick Gerhardt came close with a header over the bar but it could not muster much else and the points were in the Phoenix bag.
Phoenix central defenders Ben Sigmund and skipper Andrew Durante worked well together while Vince Liaworked hard all day in midfield.
Brockie looked dangerous every time he got the ball and Ifill showed his class.
A disappointing crowd of 3060, believed to be the Phoenix's the smallest home crowd, attended the game.
A-League
The scores
Phoenix 1
Jeremy Brockie 19
Heart 0
Crowd: 3060
