Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick had no excuses for his team’s performance in their 5-0 drubbing to Melbourne Heart.
The heavy loss left the Phoenix outside the A-League’s top six playoff places and ended a run of good performances that had seen them win six of their past eight matches.
Wellington were off the pace from the start at Westpac Stadium on Sunday and the Heart made the most of the home side’s lacklustre display with David Williams scoring a hat-trick after Dutch midfielder Orlando Engelaar fired home an early goal.
Glen Moss’s misfortune which saw Robbie Wielaert’s 54th minute strike come back off the crossbar and rebound into the goal off the Phoenix keeper’s back summed up Wellington’s sorry day.
“It was one of those days where everyone had an off day. So the whole team performed very poorly,” said Merrick who couldn’t remember ever suffering a 5-0 defeat as a coach before.
“Nothing went right. We couldn’t get our passing game together. Great credit to the Heart they closed us down. They shut down Carlos (Hernandez). They stopped our midfield and they hit some terrific goals.”
Hernandez was industrious throughout the match but couldn’t shake the attention of Patrick Gerhardt to really create anything.
Leading goal-scorer Stein Huysegems was also well-marshalled by Jason Hoffman, while Melbourne keeper Andrew Redmayne was equal to everything sent his way.
While Moss could do nothing to stop Engelaar’s thunderbolt strike in the ninth minute he was completely out of position on the edge of his area when Williams lobbed him to open his account on 19 minutes.
The Heart striker’s second at the start of the second half came on the counter-attack after the Phoenix lost possession in midfield and it was that goal that really broke the home side.
“After that we really struggled,” conceded Merrick. Wielaert added the fourth with Moss’ assistance just minutes later before Williams rounded off an impressive performance with a lovely curling shot that deflected in off the post.
Merrick refused to use the absence of injured midfielder Albert Riera as an excuse, but the Spaniard was sorely missed.
The Phoenix are also without Paul Ifill (Achilles) and Louis Fenton (shoulder) for the season.
“Injuries have taken their toll but that doesn’t allow you to get beaten 5-0,” said Merrick.
“That’s not a good excuse whatsoever. There are no excuses. We played very poor football.”
Heart coach John Van ‘t Schip had plenty of reasons to celebrate.
The win broke a 22-away game winless streak and was his side’s first success on New Zealand soil.
“If you can win in Wellington in what I think is one of the most difficult games to win for an away team… this result is good,” he said.
Passionate_Aussie
Roar Rookie
Heart will defeat the Roar.
pete4
Guest
Brisbane this week then Melbourne derby the following week will be season defining for the Heart. All 5 goals where very decent against the Nix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Z21iyDdsU
Passionate_Aussie
Roar Rookie
#HeartBelieve
Passionate_Aussie
Roar Rookie
Fantastic news if it were to eventuate.
pete4
Guest
Interesting development... New Phoenix stadium tipped to be 'full and energetic' http://tvnz.co.nz/football-news/new-phoenix-stadium-tipped-full-and-energetic-5838849
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Heart are making a late run for the finals and given their form I am not sure I'd bet against them getting there.
Ian
Guest
Ha Ha..........just wanted to draw a comment from you. Parramatta wasn't exactly Parravegas in 1880. ;-)
AZ_RBB
Guest
A ball of hay rolling across an empty town doesn't constitute a football match. Heck that was probably Brisbane in 1980 :P
Ian
Guest
remember Parramatta had the first game of football in Australia in 1880 - 5 years after the game in Brisbane/Ipswich. ;-)
Rellum
Roar Guru
Fair enough. We did miss quite a few easy chances early in the game yesterday as well. Difference is we kept trying to score chances.
clayts
Guest
I wasn't really saying JA wasn't the reason Heart weren't winning, just more that it does help when your strikers actually finish, and that you have your best players available. Take the 2 best players out of any team in the league (in pretty much any sport) and see how good they go.
Rellum
Roar Guru
This site has been very quite on the Heart lately. Start winning and all the silly arguments for folding or moving the club quickly disappear. I won't agree with you on JA, I think his sacking and the appointment of JVS is the major reason why we are now winning. JA had no-idea what he was doing. I hope he goes and learns his craft and comes back ready to manage in the A-League.
clayts
Guest
Absolutely. Wanderers invented mergers in football, afterall.
AZ_RBB
Guest
I suggest a merger with Western Sydney. The merged team will be called Western Sydney Wanderers. Thoughts?
clayts
Guest
I wonder why it is that we haven't had a "Heart should relocate/fold" article in the last 5 weeks. For all that talk, all that talk (nauseatingly at times) Heart are now what, 3 whole points behind Perf (who have escaped ANY of this type of talk/scrutiny) and a HUGE 5 points behind both Newcastle and the NUX (who have been reported as 'the form side in the comp' and everyone is saying how well Merrick has done with them). Heart also have the equal leading goal scorer in the comp, by the way. I've been saying it all season. Heart created plenty of chances even when JA was the manager. Every week Heart would creat enough chances to win but never put them away. Look what happens now when all of a sudden some (repeat, some) of these chances are being capitalised upon. Also it is by no means a coincidence that as soon as Heart actually have their best players on the park, they started winning. But yeah, they should still fold