A brace of goals from Jaushua Sotirio has seen Wellington Phoenix beat Macarthur FC 3-1 at Campbelltown Stadium in Sydney on Sunday.
The win is the Phoenix's third of the A-League season and lifts them five places to seventh on the competition ladder.
It's also their first back-to-back victory, coming off last month's 2-1 defeat of Western United.
Reno Piscopo gave the Nix a 1-0 halftime lead from the penalty spot, before former Wellington playmaker Ulises Dávila equalised for Macarthur early in the second half.
But after missing out on a handful of prime goal-scoring opportunities in the first half, Sotirio - filling in for injured captain Gary Hooper - made it count in the second, with two well-taken goals to seal the win for the Phoenix.
"I think Jaushy could have scored a couple more goals in the first half. We could have [been] two or three nil up and killed the game after 45 minutes," Phoenix head coach Ufuk Talay said after the game.
"But as we like it we always do it the hard way, we let them in the game with an error that we made. But I think performance-wise, the boys were fantastic today."
Talay hailed Sotirio’s resilience to bounce back from his first-half disappointment.
"You need character in this game, you need thick skin and for me at the same time the positive sign is he’s in those right areas and the more he gets in there the more opportunity he’s got to score," Talay added.
"He was a little bit upset [at halftime], he was a little bit down but for me that’s normal. He's got in the right areas and hasn't capitalised on it.
"But the main thing is we keep it positive in the changing room and he keeps going again and he rewarded himself by being positive in the second half."
On Wednesday, the Phoenix will try to make it three wins on the bounce, when they take on newly crowned FFA Cup champions Melbourne Victory in Wollongong.
Wellington Phoenix 3 (Reno Piscopo penalty 12', Jaushua Sotirio 71', 78') Macarthur 1 (Ulises Davila 58') HT: 1-0
