Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay has warned his players of complacency before their must-win playoff game against Western United on Saturday at Melbourne.
The Phoenix boast an impressive record against their opponents, winning six of their eight A-League meetings, with their only defeat coming in 2019, but Talay has reminded his youthful team of the raised stakes.
"We’ve had some positive results against Western United previously," Talay said. "We’ll take that confidence going into the game, but finals football is a different beast altogether.
"The game can change very quickly in 90 minutes, so we just need to be prepared for every circumstance, whatever happens, that we’re able to deal with it.
"It’s not going to be an easy game. We have to travel there.
"They’re playing in Melbourne and they’re a very experienced side that have had a very good season as well, and probably have more players that have played in these types of games previously, so it’s definitely going to be a challenge."
This will be the club's 10th playoff game and sixth in Australia, but they are winless in their five previous playoff games across the Tasman.
Talay guided Wellington to the postseason in his first season in charge, but the team had to 'host' their elimination playoff at Sydney, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This time, the players have the added incentive of bringing a finals game back to New Zealand. If the Phoenix beat Western United, they would host premiers Melbourne City in a semi-final first leg at Sky Stadium on Wednesday, May 18.
"The boys will be pretty excited and pretty ecstatic to know that we’ll get another game in Wellington, once we get through Western United," Talay said.
"I think, in the back of their heads, they know that if we get through this game, they have an opportunity to come back home and play in Wellington, but the focus is on getting the result done on Saturday.
"If we don’t get the result on Saturday, all of that other stuff means nothing.
"The focus is to win and get the result, and then the boys will know that we’re flying back to Wellington to play a game in front of our fans again."
