Wellington Phoenix coach Mark Rudan wants his young team not to get ahead of themselves following their massive 3-1 upset win over Sydney FC in the A-League.
Three first-half goals, two to Roy Krishna and a third from Steven Taylor secured the boilover of the season in Sydney on Saturday, as Phoenix ended a run of five games without a win.
Rudan, who was coaching an A-League game for the first time against the club he captained to the inaugural title in 2005-06, feels his players are starting to believe in themselves following last week’s draw with early season pacesetters Perth and Saturday’s win over Sydney.
“The challenge for our players is consistency, we’ve been up and down, we certainly don’t want to be an inconsistent team,” Rudan said.
“But belief is the big one for them, we’ve got to calm down, enjoy tonight, but calm down.”
Rudan also hopes to contain hype around around teenager midfielders Sarpreet Singh and Liberato Cacace, each of who supplied a goal assist on Saturday with pinpoint delivery.
“He (Singh) is a confident young gun, but he needs to continue to work,’ Rudan said.
“We can’t hype him up too much but I certainly like the young kids and I’ll throw them in.
“I’ll keep working with them, they are Kiwi boys as well, which is important.
“But again you’ve got to put them in a bit of a cocoon as well, because a lot of people might start talking these guys up, and rightly so, they deserve it.”
With Fijian-born Krishna getting New Zealand citizenship, Rudan has the opportunity to bring in another import, amongst any signings the club makes in the January transfer window.
“We don’t stop at one, as well, I think it’s always important to freshen the place up with a couple of new faces,” Rudan said
Wellington have successive home games over the next two rounds against Central Coast and Brisbane, both of whom are in the bottom three.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I'm sure they will, but the historical note is actually more relevant to the Nix.
jbinnie
Guest
Mark should not be worried too much about the psychology of his players after this win. What he should do is make it mandatory that a recording of the game should be part and parcel of the full training schedule for this week. Don't know if it was planned or accidental but seldom has a team performed so well in aspects of the modern game than his team did here, their first and second touch,their selection and execution of accurate passes, and their all round movement off the ball was superb. Cheers jb.
hog
Roar Rookie
Hopefully Sydney will survive for a few more seasons :-)
Mister Football
Roar Guru
I recall the New Zealand Knights, into its second season, well into its death throes, had an unlikely away win to SFC.