Last week I encour­aged Wel­ling­to­ni­ans to get out and sup­port the Phoenix as we attempt to #SaveTh­eNix

Plenty of people turned up to the sta­di­um to sup­port the team, 13,654 in fact!

How ’bout them met­rics FFA?! (Photo cour­tesy @WestpacStadium)

That’s over double what the Phoenix have had at their last few home games! So: THANK YOU!

It was a fant­ast­ic even­ing of foot­ball with the rain stay­ing away and even the wind not get­ting to blustery. That didn’t stop the Yel­low Fever singing “We’ve got the wind, the rain and the Phoenix” with gusto.

With two goals scored in the first five minutes of the game it was a great intro­duc­tion to those com­ing along for the first time.

I actu­ally missed the first goal as I was lined up in the ser­i­ously long queue for the ‘craft’ (or as I like to say ‘good’) beer stand. Both Tuatara and Gar­age Pro­ject had beer avail­able, and not just their stand­ard offer­ings: Orange Sun­shine from GP (an Amer­ic­an style wheat ale with lem­on & orange zest) and Out­rig­ger (their sea­son­al Pacific Pale Ale) from Tuatara. It’s awe­some to see West­pac Sta­di­um sup­port­ing loc­al brew­ers and not stick­ing to the neces­sar­ily “safe” options. More choice means more hap­pi­ness! I know that myself and friends bought 4–8 more beers than we would have oth­er­wise so A+

The high­light of the game was prob­ably this fant­ast­ic goal from Roly Bone­va­cia. This is his second sea­son with the Wel­ling­ton Phoenix after spend­ing ten years at the fam­ous Ajax Academy in the Neth­er­lands. We can see now exactly why Ernie Mer­rick (the Phoenix coach) was keen to sign him up to play.

Go back and have anoth­er look at that video of Roly’s goal! Look how happy that ball boy in the back­ground is, about 4 seconds in!! I think every­one in the sta­di­um was prob­ably doing exactly that. Except per­haps the 3 Adelaide United fans who trecked across the Tas­man to sup­port not only their team but ours as well. They brought with them their own #SaveTh­eNix sign!

They may be dis­ap­poin­ted but we’re stoked they came in sup­port. Photo by Hagen Hop­kins from Stuff

For high­lights of the whole game look no fur­ther than here

This Sat­urday even­ing the Wel­ling­ton Phoenix take on the West­ern Sydney Wan­der­ers in Sydney. Both teams have equal points on the table, hav­ing won three, drawn two and lost one game. The Wan­der­ers have won their last three games on the trot so are hop­ing to make it four against us. I’m sure we’ll see more #SaveTh­eNix ban­ners in the crowd at Pirtek Sta­di­um, espe­cially after the new Chair­man of the FFA, Steven Lowy, son of the pre­vi­ous Chair­man Frank Lowy,  stated in his first press con­fer­ence that “I don’t intend to elab­or­ate on the Wel­ling­ton issue right now, but we will in the new year.” This means that the Phoenix’s licence to play in the A‑League is still up in the air AND play­ers of the Phoenix could poten­tially look to move to anoth­er team dur­ing the upcom­ing trans­fer win­dow. Per­haps a team that has a 20 year licence!!

If you’re look­ing for a great way to spend Sat­urday even­ing I can highly recom­mend yelling at a TV screen in sup­port of the Phoenix, either from the com­fort of your own house OR at a loc­al pub which will surely be will­ing to get in behind the team and help #SaveTh­eNix.

The game is screen­ing at 7pm on Sky Sport 2