Wellington Phoenix made history by claiming their first ever A-League Women's win since their inception to the competition this season, ending Canberra United's finals hopes in the process.
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The historic maiden win by the visitors left United searching for answers in their 3-0 defeat at home, and ended any hopes of a finals berth for the 2021-22 season.
Two offsides, right after each other, early in the half gave fans on both sides a buzz at Viking Park, as the linespeople kept their flags down until late to deny a Wellington attempt and an Ash Sykes attempt.
There were limited clear cut chances in the opening 40 minutes of the game before, against the run of play, Wellington broke the deadlock five minutes before half time. The visitors worked the ball into the box and Chloe Knott found the ball at her feet, firing it top right to take the lead 1-0.
United head coach Vicki Linton said the goal just before half time was disappointing, as it was caused by "switching off moments" and they addressed that each week.
"Obviously it's really disappointing," she said.
"I think we can't disguise that, like that's just really disappointing. I think everyone will be feeling that. There were elements that we did well, but not consistently.
"Wellington brought their intensity and we didn't quite deal with that. We still created a number of chances that just didn't seem to go our way."
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It was apparent United came out of the sheds at half time with one mission - to score. Sykes was shortly after taken down in the box for a corner, as appeals for a penalty were dismissed by referee Rebecca Mackie. A scramble in the box allowed Canberra's Ally Horan to fire a shot off to no avail.
The counter attack from the visitors came swiftly after, catching United's defence flat footed by the pace of Wellington's Grace Jale. The striker ran it from near halfway, all the way to goal, and slotted it past Chloe Lincoln to make it 2-0, 49 minutes in.
Sykes responded immediately with a slip ball from Chelsee Washington, her cross floated over the heads of oncoming bodies. This kickstarted the fire in Canberra's bellies and they had chance after chance, but could not break the drought.
Once again Wellington made the most of their chances to increase the lead to 3-0. A cross from an overlapping Talitha Kramer found a touch from Ava Pritchard into United's Horan, taking a deflection and crossing the goal line in the 61st minute.
Wellington head coach Gemma Lewis said, straight after the game, that it was hard to process the historic win.
"It's hard to put into words to be honest," she said.
"I feel like it hasn't really settled in, adrenaline and everything else at the moment, but I think you could see from the reaction from the girls at the final whistle. It means a lot.
"They've been building and we've had some good performances but we haven't turned it into results. So we've just kind of been waiting to kind and put that performance together, and capitalise and try to get those results. So hard to sum it up but they've definitely been working really hard for it."
Substitute Allira Toby had two clear cut chances, one after the other, right in front of goal but sent both wide to the dismay of the home crowd. Grace Maher delivered the best chance of the night with a long range shot some 76 minutes in, and it was only denied by the crossbar.
United continued to search for a goal, testing the strength of Wellington's defence, but could not complete the final phase for a consolation goal.