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Phoenix women prove a point with hard-earned draw on debut

Phillip Rollo

Wellington Phoenix have made the rest of the A-League Women’s competition sit up and take notice with an impressive debut showing against Western Sydney Wanderers.

They have already matched Perth Glory’s points tally from last season by grinding out a 0-0 draw in their opening game at WIN Stadium in Wollongong on Friday and coach Gemma Lewis said the result proved the Phoenix belonged at this level.

‘‘They did exactly what we wanted them to do . . . super proud of them and couldn’t have asked for anything more,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘We know people aren’t going to take us lightly now, and they are going to know what to expect now, so that’s going to be something that we will work on, but it’s just going to make them more hungry to not be happy with a draw.

‘‘We got a draw and we got a point, but they want to push even more and show people that they can really keep improving.’’

A high-tempo defensive display laid the foundation for the positive result, and the two youngest members of the squad, 18-year-old centre-back Kate Taylor and 17-year-old right-back Zoe McMeeken, were amongst the standout individuals. Their high press caused Wanderers plenty of problems and had the Phoenix been more clinical with their finishing, they could have come away with a win.

Wanderers came closest to scoring with Sheridan Gallagher rattling the crossbar early in the first half, but the Phoenix created more clear opportunities over the game, putting five shots on target to Wanderers’ three.

Lewis said fitness had been a big focus during their pre-season.

‘‘It’s a hard ask to press that much throughout the game and keep constantly being on the front foot and pushing them back, and you have to bear in mind our preparation. We’re three or four weeks into this,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘The pre-season was hard. It was really hard. We pushed them a lot, and we didn’t have a big time frame.

‘‘My sports scientist told me the way you want to play they’re not going to be 100 per cent ready by the first game, and I think we saw that in the last few minutes with them going down or starting to have cramp . . . but we’re only going to get fitter from here.’’

Having worked with most of the players on national age-group teams before, Lewis said she knew the Phoenix had the potential to surprise in their season, and she was thrilled to see the team gel so quickly.

‘‘People see that it’s really young players, but these girls haven’t been seen because they’re in New Zealand, but they can compete, and I think we’ve shown that.

‘‘We knew there weren’t any expectations of us going in, but the girls want to show what they’re made of, they want to show that they are here to compete, they want to show they have the calibre to be in this league, so they had something to prove, and I think you could see that.’’

An ankle injury kept key forward Kelli Brown out of the opening game, but Lewis said she was optimistic the New Zealand under-20 rep would be fit for their next game, against Newcastle Jets next Friday night.

‘‘We’re going to get her in her boots and see how she holds up, and that will tell us a lot about how next week will look like.’’

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2021-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282480007081219

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