Former Wellington and Gold Coast United striker Smeltz joined Glory during the off-season and notched up his 52nd A-League goal against the Nix on Sunday to move within one strike of all-time leader Archie Thompson.

Smeltz hit a match-winning double last week in Perth's 2-1 win at Melbourne Heart and Ferguson told Fox Sports he proved the key again for his side.

“He's the difference. You saw last week the quality he brings to the team,” Ferguson said.

“He's popped up with the winner again today, so he's on fire at the moment, so long may it continue.”

Glory struggled to get in control on Sunday's game but Ferguson said he was pleased by another win.

“It was a great result for us. We never particularly played very well today,” he said.

“I thought Wellington were picking up a lot of second balls but getting the result was fantastic. It's another clean sheet so we've got to be happy with that.”

He continued: “The boys looked compact and looked good in defence, I was really pleased with them, but I wasn't pleased with the fact we went so deep and that's something we'll have to work on.”

As for injured midfielder Liam Miller, Ferguson said: “He looks okay. We won't be able to tell for 24 hours.”

Wellington coach Ricki Herbert told Fox Sports he felt this was one of his side's best away performances for a long time.

“I thought we completely outplayed them today. I don't think we've ever come here and played that well,” he said.

“One set play and we get punished for it. That's the road you've got to take. We didn't take our chances.”

“Any lapse like that in this league, you're going to get punished. We showed some tremendous character. We dominated the game it was a matter of getting a chance, but it just didn't happen.”

Nix skipper Andrew Durante added: “The second-half especially we completely dominated the game but we couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. Our away form in previous years has been quite poor but I thought we were outstanding tonight.”