Wellington Phoenix may have received an unexpected boost from an unlikely source in their pursuit of A-League regular season honours.
The team from the capital sit atop the competition table on the penultimate weekend of the Aussie football competition, one point clear of rivals Central Coast Mariners, who were scheduled to face Adelaide on Sunday.
On Thursday, the Mariners played Kyrgyzstan club Abdish-Ata Kant in an Asian Football Confederation Cup encounter at Bishkek, but their journey home has been delayed by adverse weather conditions and flight cancellations through Dubai, forcing a postponement of their Adelaide fixture.
The new timing of that match has not been confirmed, but Central Coast are already due to host Abdish-Ata Kant in a return encounter on Wednesday, before visiting Newcastle Jets on Saturday, so suddenly their week looks congested.
The Phoenix squandered a chance to put the heat on their rivals, when they could not put away the Jets on Friday, with captain Alex Rufer missing an added-time penalty that would have give them all three points on offer.
The 1-1 draw was enough to give them a small advantage for the time being, but afterwards, coach Giancarlo Italiano was asked if his team had just handed the Premiers Plate to the Mariners.
"Do I feel like it's dead?" he mused. "Well, you saw tonight not everything goes to script, so they still have to come and they've had a bit of travel."
Those words now seem prophetic.
