Wellington had a second-half goal to Sarpreet Singh disallowed after a VAR review, while they won a late penalty minutes after the foul was committed, which Roy Krishna converted at the second attempt.

"I keep asking the question who is running the game?" Merrick said.

"I thought Sarpreet Singh's goal was perfectly sound. It semed to come off his chest, maybe touch his arm.

"There was nothing wrong with Sarpreet's goal but the VAR said it wasn't a goal."

Ex-Phoenix boss Merrick wasn't alone with being bemused about Wellington's late spotkick either, with his players baffled post-game.

"We're still asking questions in the change-rooms," he said.

"There were two replays shown. We weren't sure why a penalty was given.

"Apparenty it was because Mitch Nichols fell over on the edge of the box nowhere near the ball and we played on for two minutes afterwards.

"Is the referee in charge or are we going to keep going back? If we keep going back, maybe we should go back to tossing the coin?"