Wellington Phoenix have been denied their maiden A-League Women win in heartbreaking fashion on Monday, falling 3-2 to Perth Glory.
Entering the final stages of the contest holding a 2-1 lead, the Glory struck twice in the final 10 minutes to steal the points at the Wanderers Football Park in Syndey.
It's the second time in three matches the Phoenix have let a 2-1 halftime lead slip, as they remain mired at the bottom of the competition ladder in their debut campaign.
After the Glory has taken the early advantage, Grace Jale and Chloe Knott scored first half goals to put Wellington in front.
But in the second stanza, Perth eventually wore the Phoenix down, as Cyera Hintzen and Mie Leth Jans netted goals to hand the Phoenix their eighth straight defeat.
Phoenix head coach Gemma Lewis was left to rue another missed opportunity.
"It did feel like we had the win in us this time around," Lewis says.
"Again we got into that mindset of defending the win, rather than playing, rather than sticking to our own game. You can't spend 45 minutes trying to defend a 2-1 lead."
Lewis believes her players began to panic when they were in the lead, similar to what she'd seen when they were up 2-0 against Brisbane earlier this month.
"We've seen us do it in the past so it's frustrating that we're not learning from that and realising we can't let opposition dictate, especially when we're leading and having good positive moments in the game," says Lewis.
"If we stuck to our gameplan and focused on us rather than focussed on defending the lead, I think we would have taken the sting back out of it and controlled the game a bit more.
"It's something we've going to have to address and something we're going to have to work out how to move through because we want to be leading in games, we want to be winning and we want that not to be a terrifying aspect for us."
The Phoenix's next chance to break their duck comes against Melbourne Victory on Friday.
Perth Glory 3 (Sofia Sakalis 14’, Cyera Hintzen 81’, Mie Leth Jans 88’) Wellington Phoenix 2 (Grace Jale 20’, Chloe Knott 39’)
