Nix into top six after Sail heroics in five-goal thriller

David Ball’s late winner has netted Wellington all three points in a cracking A-League Men encounter against Newcastle on Wednesday night.

Having spent much of the second half on the back foot, Phoenix’s Sam Sutton picked out Ball with a lovely cross in the 88th minute that allowed the Englishman to smash a header home and seal his side a 3-2 win at Central Coast Stadium.

The win means the Phoenix have gone seven games without defeat and left them inside the top six in the race for finals.

Despite conceding twice, man-of-the-match honours could easily have gone to red-hot Wellington keeper Oli Sail, whose saves denied a rampant Jets’ line-up a number of goals.

Sail produced a brilliant double save on 20 minutes, parrying away a blazing effort from Olivier Boumal and then a driven effort from Daniel Penha in the same passage of play.

Jaushua Sotirio opened the scoring on 25 minutes with a delightful penalty, sliding it past debutant Newcastle keeper Michael Weier after he was hacked by Matt Jurman while through on goal.

Penha continued to work Sail who made another stop from distance on the half-hour, but they finally levelled matters on 42 minutes when Beka Mikeltadze found an acre of space and picked out Penha to turn one home from close range for a 1-1 scoreline.

But they were quickly behind again as Ben Waine broke away on the counterattack and backed himself, tucking the ball past Weier to make it 2-1.

Newcastle took control after the half and had several chances only to be denied until Boumal found plenty of room and blasted one past Sail to make it 2-2.

The Phoenix custodian’s brilliance paid dividends when Ball bobbed up to steal the points against the run of play, and as if he hadn’t done enough, he dived late to deny a Mikeltadze free kick in the game’s dying stages.

The result continued Newcastle’s struggles away from home, reaping just one win from seven games on the road this season.