AN AWAY trip to Brisbane never does much for Phoenix fans.
History tells us that Phoenix never win there, and in fact, never even get a result. Three visits, three losses, no points. Until Sunday, that is. Phoenix gained their first point at Suncorp, and can perhaps consider themselves a little unlucky not to have claimed all three.
The 1-1 draw also propelled them to the heady heights of fourth on the competition ladder. Only once before in their history have the club been that high after a completed round of matches and that was all the way back in round six of 2007/08.
The second half performance was as good a half of away football as I've seen from Phoenix in their short existence. Faced with a one-goal deficit and with Brisbane controlling the game, the move to a conventional 4-4-2 at half-time worked really well. All of a sudden Phoenix had more of the ball, they were creating chances and winning free-kicks as the Roar players became more and more frustrated.
It's quickly become obvious that Phoenix's two English imports are the real deal. Paul Ifill is full of running and always looks likely to create something, while there's just so much to like about Chris Greenacre. In him, the Phoenix midfielders and defenders have a reliable target to aim for, knowing that if they find his feet with the ball, he'll control it, live on it and bring another player into the game. He makes intelligent runs, takes up excellent positions, and can finish, as evidenced by his equaliser against Roar.
While Phoenix fans are in general agreement that losing Shane Smeltz was a huge blow, there now seems to be a growing feeling that it may end up actually being a good thing for the club. So reliant had they become on Smeltz to score their goals that if he had an off-day, or was successfully marked out of the game, there was no reliable "Plan B" when it came to finding the back of the net.
Consider this: Phoenix scored their fourth goal in round two this season - it took them four games in 2007/08 and six games last season to score four goals. But even more telling is that the four goals in the first two games this season were all scored by different players - in 2007/08 it took six matches to have four different goalscorers and last season it took a staggering 11 games for four different Phoenix players to find the net. With the responsibility for scoring goals now spread around, Phoenix have become more than just a one-trick pony.
However, they really need to stop conceding the first goal in their matches. In 45 A-League games, the opposition has been first to score on 31 occasions. Even more worrying is that of those 31 games in which Phoenix have gone 1-0 down, they've only come back to win five times. The message is simple - don't concede the first goal!
I can't see too many personnel changes for this weekend's visit to Sydney, although thought may be given to tinkering again with the midfield mix.
If fit, Jon McKain will always fill one of the central midfield positions (in either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 formation) but there's still some conjecture over who's best in there with him. Tim Brown was the incumbent after partnering McKain there for the majority of last season, but his injury opened the door for Michael Ferrante. Apart from his now legendary inability to score goals (he has just one in 39 appearances), I'm still not sure he's the answer.
Vince Lia replaced Ferrante for the last 20 minutes and did enough to stake a claim for inclusion. Lia started 13 games in season one of Phoenix's existence before an injury in the first match of the pre-season cup last year put him out for the season. Now back to full fitness, he looks capable of making a major contribution in the engine room.
Regardless of how Ricki Herbert lines them up, Phoenix can go to unbeaten Sydney with justified confidence after the last two matches. And unlike Brisbane, Sydney has been a happy hunting ground for the side with wins in two of their three previous matches there. Another victory would likely send them into the rarefied air of the A-League's upper echelons, making a mockery of almost every betting agency's pre-season view that they'd be battling to avoid the wooden spoon at the other end of the table.
