Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Glen Moss has questioned the commitment of some of his team-mates after his side suffered a major blow to their Hyundai A-League Finals Series hopes on Sunday.
Last night’s 3-1 loss to Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium saw the Phoenix fall five points behind the sixth-placed Wanderers with just four regular season games remaining.
Wanderers cement sixth after win over Phoenix
“We’ve got a few players out there who just kind of do what they want and don’t stick to the game-plan and it shows,” a furious Moss told Fox Sports afterwards.
“We’ve been [working on] it for the last couple of weeks but it just doesn’t sink in.”
On the slow start by Wellington
Despite only arriving back in Sydney on Friday after an Asian Champions League meeting with FC Seoul on Wednesday night, the Wanderers were dominant in the opening exchanges, peppering Moss with several shots and finding time and space down both flanks in the first 20 minutes.
“We wanted to treat this game like a cup final and that’s certainly not how we went out there,” said Moss.
“We looked like the team that was jet-lagged, so it’s extremely disappointing.
“We wanted to go in there fresh and hopefully try and use a little bit of that to our advantage with their hectic travel.
“If there’s two teams fighting for that final six position and that’s what we put out there today, that first 20 minutes, they could have been up by four or five.”
On the Phoenix’s finals chances
The Phoenix have home games against Newcastle and Sydney FC and visit Melbourne Victory and Brisbane in the final month of the season, probably needing to win three of those four matches to have any chance of finals football.
“I’m not sure what else we can do but keep working hard and battling away and now we’ve got to hope for a few results to go our way.
“We don’t deserve it, put it that way.”
On departing for international duty
Moss will link up with the New Zealand national side today as the All Whites prepare for home and away World Cup qualifiers against Fiji in the next eight days.
Club team-mates Andrew Durante, Michael McGlinchey, Tom Doyle, Shane Smeltz and Alex Rufer will also be with the All Whites, while the Phoenix’s top-scorer Roy Krishna will lead Fiji.
Those seven players will miss Sunday’s clash with the Jets at Westpac Stadium.
“It’ll be good for a couple of the Kiwi boys to change the environment and get in with the national team and hopefully come back with a bit more spark.”
