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The Phoenix started with a flurry and Lochhead, on his return from a long injury absence, got down the line and found Macallister in just the first minute. He looked certain to score but his close range side foot was brilliantly saved down low by Ryan to keep his side level.
Above: New Mariners signing Michael Baird. Credit: John Dewberry
Five minutes later Rojas nicked beyond the centre halves, but could only toe poke the ball on target and this time Ryan saved comfortably.
The Mariners, however, were growing into the game and first Rose – who scored two in his last game against Wellington – then Perez had good strikes fly just wide.
On the twenty minute mark McGlinchy went one better – his strike forced Vukovic to save at full stretch. The Mariners were now the only side in the game and McBreen could easily have made their dominance pay but he headed over, then moments later directly at Vukovic.
Incredibly, the game remained scoreless after a first half hour full of incident. Both sides had penalty shouts turned down while Rojas continued to impress for the Phoenix and Perez and McGlinchy were influential for the Mariners.
Eventually the Mariners’ pressure told. On the 40 minute mark Perez rolled the ball to a breaking Josh Rose, who burst into the box. His cut back found McGlinchy who thumped home from the penalty spot.
One nil to the Mariners, and while the Phoenix had contributed plenty to the half the Mariners were good value for their lead.
The Mariners resumed their dominance after the break. Zwaanswijk met a clipped Daniel McBreen cross, but his header hit the top of the crossbar. The Phoenix were looking tired after their midweek exertions against Melbourne and were chasing shadows as the Mariners threatened to pass them off the park.
On the hour mark McBreen should have got the crucial second goal, but fired over as he stretched for Bojic’s cross.
Herbert brought Daniel, Greenacre and Bertos on and their freshness improved the away side. Macallister forced Ryan into a save as the Phoenix began to believe they could grab a late point.
The Mariners, however, closed the game out with a minimum of fuss and they'll now head into a hectic run of games over the next two weeks, and a chance to leapfrog Adelaide into second place.
For the visitors, this was hardly Wellington’s worst away performance of the season, but after they failed to take a flurry of chances early on they faded and struggled to truly trouble the Coast.