Phoenix is away to Western Sydney Wanderers at Campbelltown Stadium on Tuesday, with Barbarouses to turn out for the club for the first time since leaving for Brisbane Roar in 2010.

Since leaving Wellington, Barbarouses has won two premierships and two championships at Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory as well as an FFA Cup.

Still only 26, the New Zealand international has returned to his former club with big expectations on his shoulders after the Nix finished a lowly ninth last term.

“We’ve got to have that winning mentality,” Barbarouses told FourFourTwo.

“It’s not something that is apparent from the beginning but if you work on it and build on it, the boys get a taste for it and the younger boys get a sense of what it means to win and be successful.

“Hopefully we can bring that over to the cup. This cup is going to be great preparation for us.

“Obviously it’s a massive game for us and we’re taking it very seriously, but leading into the season it’s going to put us in good stead against a good Wanderers team.”

Wellington tuned up for the contest with a good 2-1 win against Chinese second tier club Beijing EG in horrific conditions in the Chinese capital on Wednesday.

Phoenix, who flew straight to Sydney from Beijing, has now won four games in a row in pre-season, providing good foundations for the new campaign.

“There was torrential rain just before kick-off which put a dampener on it a little bit but it was a good hit-out for us,” Barbarouses said.

“It’s a result-based business, so we’re happy to get the win.

“It’s four wins in a row now, so that’s important mentally.”

Wellington has never gone further than the Round of 16 in the FFA Cup, where they must play all of their games away under competition rules.

Barbarouses, who had spells in Brisbane, Russia, Greece and Melbourne in between his latest stint at Wellington, said Wanderers were an ideal opponent.

“They’ll be taking it very seriously as well,” he said.

“I think we all expect them to be very organized already. Popovic is a very organized coach.

“The players will all work very hard for him.

“It’s probably a perfect game for us to play because it’ll show us where we’re at and show us some areas we need to work on and see how we react to them.”