SIX HOURS. That’s a long time. It’s a full day’s test cricket.It’s two and a half Olympic marathons. It’s an entire A-League Pre-Season Cup campaign. And it’s how long the Mariners have now gone without scoring against Wellington Phoenix.

When you consider the Mariners are the A-League’s top goal-scorers and are so offensive-rich they can afford to leave Sasho Petrovski and Nik Mrdja on the bench, it’s astonishing they’ve been unable to penetrate Phoenix’s defence for so long. Ironically, the last Mariners player to score against us was Adam Kwasnik, now a Phoenix player.

It’s not as though it’s been raining goals at the other end; Phoenix themselves have managed just three goals in those six hours, but they’ve been priceless strikes, enough to earn them progression to the Pre-Season Cup final, but far more importantly seven of a possible nine A-League points against a side they lost to three times last season.

A cynic might suggest Friday’s 1-0 win was the result of scoring in the second minute and hanging on for the remaining 88. Certainly the stats for possession, territory and forays into the opposing penalty area all heavily favoured the Mariners, but last time I checked those numbers don’t make any difference to the league table.

A win’s a win, and this one was hard-fought and well deserved. Andrew Durante and Karl Dodd were superb in central defence and Manny Muscat had his best game in a Phoenix shirt. Behind them, Glen Moss made some vital saves to keep his goal intact.

In front of the back four, Jon McKain and Tim Brown are developing into an extremely solid defensive midfield combination; this was their ninth successive game in partnership and if you disregard the aberration against Adelaide momentarily, just six goals have been conceded in the other eight matches, due in no small part to the contribution of this pair.

Phoenix are now incredibly hard to break down, a marked contrast to last season when goals were leaked and points lost at an alarming rate, often as a result of brain explosions and just plain poor defending.

That’s four wins and a draw in the last six games for Phoenix and in a league that’s tighter than a bank’s current lending criteria, it’s the sort of form that ensures a side remains in the playoff mix. Phoenix can now approach the final five regular season games with confidence, secure in the belief they can grind out wins and make it very difficult for sides to beat them.

It seems every match now is massive for Phoenix; Friday night certainly was – anything other than a win would have put a serious dent in their post-season aspirations. This Sunday’s visit to Suncorp looms large now, as does the next crucial home game against the resurgent Jets early in 2009.

A year ago, Phoenix fans ate their Christmas pudding with nothing much to look forward to in the New Year. This time around, there’s plenty of anticipation that the side can feature prominently in the A-League’s business end, due in no small part to a vastly improved defence.

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