The Wellington Phoenix marksman shrugged off a barren start to the year with a five-goal haul in the last four games – all of them on the road.

But he said the real test starts this weekend with a return to Westpac Stadium and what could turn out to be a season-defining month for the Kiwi club.

Phoenix currently sit just outside the play-offs and one point behind A-League new boys, Western Sydney Wanderers, who they face on Sunday for the first time since their 1-1 pre-season draw.

“We’ve got four of our five games in December at home so it’s an important time,” said Brockie. “Hopefully we can put a nice run together.

“You only really need to string two or three wins together in a row and you can move up the ladder pretty quickly so we’ll be looking to try and do that this month.”

Last season Brockie racked up nine goals for his former club Newcastle Jets – his best season to date - but an 18-goal blitz during pre-season built a mountain of expectation around Wellington's new striker ahead of their 2012/13 campaign.

After a slow start he now finds himself second on the goalscoring leaderboard alongside marquee men Alessandro Del Piero (Sydney FC) and Emile Heskey (Jets).

“If I can keep scoring and moving up the leaderboard with the likes of them I’ll be very happy,” Brockie said.

“Last season I set myself a target of 10 which I fell one short of and this year I was looking to build on what I got last year and set myself a goal of 12 for the season.

“So If I can get to there, hopefully that means the club will probably be doing quite well as well."

Brockie added: “I’m focussed on trying to keep some consistency, scoring goals or being part of setting up team-mates and trying to get three points.

“I’ve worked hard to try and keep getting on the scoresheet and worked hard for the team to make sure we keep moving on up the ladder.

“Obviously we were pretty disappointed that we sat on the bottom a couple of weeks ago but we’ve turned it around quite nicely in the last few games.”

A key to that was Brockie’s Round 7 performance against the Jets, and he admits it was a good feeling to put two past his old club.

The only dark cloud over match was a sickening collision with Jets goalkeeper Mark Birighitti, leaving the promising shot stopper with a fractured cheekbone, a date with the surgeons and at least six weeks on the sidelines.

Brockie says he felt “down” for days after the incident.

“We came into contact with each other – it wouldn’t have felt very nice for him," he said. "It was an accident but it never feels nice when those things happen.

“I sent him a text message straight after the game – obviously I was fairly gutted to hear what had happened,” he said.

“He didn’t get back to me directly but I talked with one of their boys and he knows that is was just a pure accidental thing.

“I just wished him the best for a quick recovery and hopefully he can get back on the pitch soon because he’s had a good start to the season.”