After another pulsating, drama-filled match, Wellington Phoenix extinguished the hopes of another pretender and marked themselves as genuine A-League contenders. The Jets' hopes were dashed by an extra-time stunner from Paul Ifill and reduced to ashes at the Ring of Fire by Eugene Dadi's icing on the cake.
The rarefied air of a Preliminary Final is scarcely believable when you consider Phoenix were eighth as we opened our Christmas presents. But eight wins from ten games since have Phoenix fans bullish about their chances of even more success on Saturday night as they scour the Internet for cheap flights to, and accommodation in Sydney.
Yes, Phoenix's accomplishments this season have been built largely on a home record which is the envy of every other side in the league. But no team would fancy facing them at the moment, home or away.
Every great team has a great leader, and in Andrew Durante Phoenix certainly have that. If there's a better central defender in the A-League then I haven't seen him and yesterday's display was the best of a particularly good recent bunch. Time and again he made perfectly-timed, yet crucial interventions to snuff out Newcastle's attacking movements. Durante has played every minute of every game this season and his cool-headed leadership has been vital in Phoenix's run deep into the playoffs.
Ifill meantime is a player you sometimes run out of adjectives for. He was irresistible again, but when an uncharacteristically heavy touch prevented him from scoring the winner deep into regulation time, the hunched shoulders and puffed-out cheeks were those of a man who thought he'd blown the chance to seal victory for his side.
But truly great individuals gain strength from adversity and Ifill became hell-bent on delivering Phoenix to the Promised Land. His 13th goal of the season did three things simultaneously - took Phoenix into the lead, broke the club's goalscoring record for a single season (beating Shane Smeltz's dozen in the last campaign) and sent the sellout crowd apoplectic with delight.
And speaking of the crowd - well, it was just sensational. Three years ago, Wellington didn't even have a football team. Now, Yellow Fever has spread to such an extent that you can't get a ticket to watch Phoenix play. To hear the unbridled, unabashed joy afterwards as thousands poured from the stadium in celebration warmed the hearts of those who never dreamed that all this was possible.
Even the journey to the ground before the game was dreamlike. Phoenix flags hung from buildings and car windows. Yellow shirts - literally thousand of them - were the rule rather than the exception. The city's bars and cafes were flooded as fans passed the hours to kick-off. Children with faces painted excitedly clutched their parents' hands. And when 4pm arrived, 33,000 jammed themselves in to sing and chant and holler and scream and yell themselves hoarse for Phoenix. Their side.
I've watched every one of Phoenix's 71 matches and they haven't all been fun. Early on, some of them were downright painful. But now, you approach Phoenix games with expectation more than hope and a feeling they can actually beat anybody. And that includes Sydney on Saturday night at the SFS.
So ... now do you believe us?
