FOLLOWERS of every football team have a day which, more than any other, they look back on fondly, reminisce about endlessly and think of longingly with a faraway look in their eye. For Phoenix fans, today was that day.
At the end of the game, it actually took me a while to register what the hell had just happened. Phoenix - scorers of just five goals in the past eight games, holders of an unwanted record of six consecutive draws and the recipients of a deluge of recent criticism about their lack of killer instinct and predictable tactics - had put six past the Glitter Strip boys. Six. Six goals. Six. Past the team who were supposedly going to sweep all before them and win the league unbeaten. SIX. It's scarcely believable even now.
When Paul Ifill drove a handy chance wide in the opening minute, I wondered if it would be another of "those days". Even after Daniel had given Phoenix the lead, a Ben Sigmund header cannoned off the crossbar to safety, prompting familiar concerns about an utterly frustrating inability to finish teams off.
Those worries were put firmly to rest in a quite astonishing opening to the second half. Before this game, Phoenix had scored just two second half goals all season. In the space of 11 incredible minutes after the break, they scored twice that many and we were looking with a sense of bewildered exuberance at a scoreboard which read, "Wellington Phoenix 5, Gold Coast United 0". Crazy.
Troy Hearfield's late goal simply put the icing on the cake and if there was any disappointment to come from the game, it was that Jiang Chen couldn't direct a late header from a handy position goalwards to make it seven - something no A-League team has ever done. As I'm typing these words, I can't believe I'm even grizzling about Phoenix not scoring a seventh goal. It's almost surreal.
Most will rightfully single out Paul Ifill as the undoubted man of the match. He has quickly become one of the A-League's biggest stars and was at the heart of everything his side created. Even a nasty head-clash which saw him return to the field swathed in bandages wasn't enough to stop his irresistible impact on the game. He provided the passes for the first three goals, then showed all his class and strength to create and slot home the fifth before departing to a rapturous ovation. In the match-day programme, Ifill said that sometime soon an opponent would feel the full wrath of Phoenix's attacking prowess; in his wildest dreams he surely could not have known how prophetic those words would become.
But while Ifill was the star of the show, it'd be hard to find a Phoenix player who didn't play well. Andrew Durante and Ben Sigmund were simply immense and for the second time in two games, gave Shane Smeltz not a single sniff at goal. Tony Lochhead chose the occasion of his 50th Phoenix match to turn in his best performance since season one, while Tim Brown and Vince Lia dominated the midfield exchanges against highly-rated opponents.
But the man I was most pleased for was Chris Greenacre. He's just such a likeable bloke but has come under increasing pressure recently for an inability to score. He responded with his best game in a Phoenix shirt, working tirelessly to create openings for himself and his team-mates. The relief on his face was obvious when he scored Phoenix's fourth goal and his instant engulfment by all nine of his outfield team-mates showed just how much the goal meant to them too. Paul Ifill said afterwards that Greenacre is the best finisher in the club "by miles" and all Phoenix fans will hope the floodgates now open after a barren spell of seven goalless matches.
Everything about this game was just astonishing and more than ever before, Phoenix have made an emphatic statement of their A-League credentials. In years to come, fans will get misty-eyed as they remember the day Bleiberg's team of stars came to town and were sent packing with their tails well and truly between their legs and six from the ‘Nix in the back of their net.
