At Sky Stadium, Wellington: Perth Glory 1 (Cyera Hintzen 10’) Wellington Phoenix 0. HT: 1-0
Wellington Phoenix have lost 10 games this A-League Women season but coach Natalie Lawrence says their 1-0 defeat against Perth Glory at Sky Stadium on Saturday was the hardest one to digest.
The Phoenix remain rooted at the bottom of the table with three matches to go after they coughed up an early goal and could not find a way back, despite peppering the Glory goal for 90 minutes.
Glory’s American striker Cyera Hintzen showed the composure the Phoenix lacked to score the game’s only goal on the 10th minute mark.
She buried the ball past goalkeeper Brianna Edwards and into the bottom right corner after receiving a tidy lay-off from Hana Lowry on the edge of the penalty area.
Lowry showed great awareness to draw in defender Marisa van der Meer, creating space for Hintzen to run into and shoot unopposed.
Despite their plethora of chances, putting 24 shots to the visitors’ eight, they were unable to find a way past Sarah Langman, who stood strong in the Glory goal, pulling off seven saves.
“It’s one of the ones that has hurt the most,” said Lawrence after their sixth defeat by a 1-0 scoreline.
“When I was first made head coach I was asked what type of brand of football I wanted to play, and I said attacking football. We’re playing very attacking football, we’re just not scoring goals.
Masanori Udagawa/Photosport
Wellington Phoenix defender Mackenzie Barry upends Perth Glory’s Isabella Foletta.
“It’s the hardest thing to do in football but it’s how you win games, and it’s something that we’ve got to keep working on.
“We had 11 shots inside the box today, 24 shots in total, we had 60% of possession. When you look at those stats, you can’t lose those games, especially with how tight it is at the bottom.
“I’m happy with how we’re progressing, how we’re getting better at playing the football we want to play, but we’ve got to start scoring goals.”
The best of their many goal-scoring opportunities came from a familiar source – a Michaela Foster corner-kick.
Van der Meer got on the end of Foster’s delivery and forced a strong save out of Langman, who got down low and parried the ball past the post for another corner.
Langman only narrowly avoided embarrassment in the first half when Paige Satchell’s shot took a deflection off Emma Rolston and went through the goalkeeper’s fingers, but she managed to stop it from crossing the line at the second attempt.
The Phoenix dominated the second half, attempting 17 shots to Glory’s two, albeit without any end product.
Substitute Ava Pritchard threw her hands to her head in disbelief when she headed wide of the target in one of their more exasperating misses late on.
With Newcastle Jets drawing 2-2 with Adelaide United on Friday, the agonising defeat leaves the Phoenix two points adrift at the bottom of the table, with a game in hand.
They travel to Newcastle next Saturday to play the Jets in what looms as a must-win game if they want to avoid the wooden spoon.
“We knew from the result yesterday we could go off the bottom of the table [if we won], but it’s in our hands. We have a game in hand.
“We know the Newcastle game is important for us and important for them, and there will be a lot of preparation going into that game.
“But we’ll stick to our process, and hopefully score some goals along the way.”
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