The visitors conceded goals to Chris Greenacre and Leo Bertos inside the opening 15 minutes at a wind-swept Westpac Stadium to trail 2-0 at half-time.

They eventually clawed a goal back through Mark Hughes' free-kick 25 minutes from the end when Phoenix midfielder Vince Lia was sent off for a second yellow card, but couldn't find an equaliser despite the one-man advantage.

Greenacre's goal was a result of a poor goal kick from keeper Justin Pasfield in just the third minute, while Bertos pounced when Eric Akoto failed to clear the ball from the box for the Phoenix's second 10 minutes later.

"I thought the wind played a big part in the first goal as the ball moved just before Justin was about to kick it and there's no accounting for that," Fury assistant coach Stuart McLaren said.

"The second goal is a mistake by Eric and he's wearing that on his shoulders at the moment.

"He knows he should have just put the size 13s straight through the ball and got it away from the danger area, but he didn't.

"When you're 2-0 down to any team in the A-League you are always pushing the smelly stuff uphill, but especially against Wellington at home."

Defender Brett Studman described the conditions as "pretty horrendous".

"I've never played in anything like that before," he said.

"We didn't play to the conditions to start with and it cost us dearly.

"To get off to such a poor start away in Wellington, they've got such a good record here, we killed ourselves. It was very difficult from then on."

But Studman felt there were positives that could be taken out of the game heading into their midweek match in Sydney.

"The second half performance was significantly better so I definitely think we can take something away from that," he said.

"In fairness to us, we could have got something out (of the game). Towards the end I think we had some great chances and we could have got a point."

The Fury will be bolstered by the return of strikers Eugene Sseppuya and Chris Payne and midfielder Isaka Cernak for Wednesday's match - the second in a run of three in eight days for the North Queenslanders.

Sseppuya's visa issues prevented him from travelling to New Zealand, while the other pair return from Olyroos duties in Vietnam.

"It's just a test now of the boys resolve. This three-game stretch was always going to be a really momentous challenge," said McLaren.

"One of the things our lads have shown in terms of their character is that no challenge intimidates them.

"Even tonight when we didn't do ourselves any favours we didn't shy away from it at 2-0 down and try and play any damage limitation.

"We came back and made a fight of it. That's one sort of silver lining if you like."