Phoenix Rise Against Heart
Cam Gordon reviews the action from the Phoenix vs Heart game played on Thursday night in Wellington. (@cambo_gordon)
The Phoenix have got their season back on track in spectacular fashion by coming back from 2-0 down to beat the Melbourne Heart 3-2 in Wellington.
Playing an understrength Heart team missing four of their starting players it was expected that the Phoenix would cruise to a relatively easy win. But after just 16 minutes of game time the Nix found themselves down 2-0 due to a Golgol Mebrahtu free kick and an own goal to Andrew Durante and it was beginning to look like it would be another case of the Nix dropping a match they were favourites to win.
But the Phoenix were not about to let another home match slip away in front of their fans, who have already had to sit through more home losses than they would be expected to this season.
The first of the comeback goals came in the 20th minute when young Louis Fenton curled one past the Heart keeper, which saw the home crowd of 6410 create a noise level louder than the numbers suggested. The rest of the first half was a back and forth affair with a few scoring opportunities for both teams but nothing finding the back of the net. The halftime score of 2-1 was a fair representation of the match up to this point with the Heart dominating early then the Nix finding their feet after a sluggish start.
The second half however was all Phoenix and resembled the way most saw the match going in the first place. Crowd favourite Jeremy Brockie got the Nix back level at 2-2 with a penalty kick in the 66th minute then scored the winner five minutes later tucking in a deflection from a Dani Sanchez shot on goal. From there they managed to hold on for a deserved 3-2 victory. Just the second time the Phoenix have come from behind at half time to win.
The result moves the Phoenix back into the top six for now with their next match coming on New Year’s Day in Brisbane against the Roar.
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