Duel … Phoenix's Leo Bertos and Fred, of Melbourne Heart, do battle in Wellington on Thursday. Photo: Getty Images
WELLINGTON: Melbourne Heart's three-year A-League winless streak at Westpac Stadium continued on Thursday when Wellington Phoenix fought back from a two-goal deficit to steal a 3-2 victory.
Golgol Mebrahtu's free-kick and an Andrew Durante own-goal gave the Heart a 2-0 lead after 16 minutes, while Louis Fenton's 20th-minute strike pulled one back for the home team.
But two second-half goals from the prolific Jeremy Brockie were enough for Wellington to secure their fourth win of the season and climb to sixth on the ladder.
If the Heart had been guilty of squandering chances in previous games, they made up for it with two goals early in the first half.
The first came just on 14 minutes after Phoenix captain Durante brought down Heart striker Jason Hoffman just outside the area and Mebrahtu curled the resulting free-kick past stranded keeper Mark Paston into the top right corner.
Too slow to regroup, Wellington conceded a second soon after when David Williams's strike deflected off Durante and through Paston's legs to make it 2-0.
Teenage striker Fenton pulled one back for the Phoenix four minutes later as Wellington pressure in the attacking third forced the turnover, and Vince Lia's through-ball found Fenton for a clinical finish.
The Heart's defence struggled without central defenders Simon Colosimo and Patrick Gerhardt, both serving a one-match suspension after collecting five yellow cards.
Brockie scored his eighth goal of the season with a penalty on 65 minutes after Heart defender Michael Marrone was adjudged to have pushed Fenton as he rose to meet a Leo Bertos cross.
Five minutes later Brockie punched home No.9 when playmaking midfielder Dani Sanchez's shot fell kindly off a defender.
Urged on by a 6410-strong crowd, the Phoenix launched an attack in the closing 10 minutes as Melbourne continued a dreadful away record this season which has secured them only four points from a possible 21.
Meanwhile, it could be one of the most unlikely match-ups in A-League history: pint-sized Leigh Broxham is poised to line up on Newcastle Jets man mountain Emile Heskey as a makeshift central defender when injury-hit Melbourne Victory entertain the Novocastrians at AAMI Park on Friday evening.
Victory coach Ange Postecoglou and his assistant Kevin Muscat, who has been in charge of team affairs this week as his boss takes time off for family reasons, are thinking outside the square as the club seeks to cover for its injury and suspension crisis with a big reshuffle.
Captain and centre-half Adrian Leijer is out through suspension after picking up another yellow card in the win over Melbourne Heart. Mark Milligan is also missing, having picked up a two-game ban for punching Heart's Jonathan Germano during that same clash.
And Diogo Ferreira, who has been used in recent games at right-back, is another absentee. The youngster went off with a groin injury during the derby and has not recovered.
So with Broxham, who stands a mere 169 centimetres, poised to play alongside Nick Ansell, a teenager with just two games behind him, it's fair to say Victory's central defence takes on an experimental look, especially when pitted against the likes of former England centre-forward Heskey, whose size, strength and power always make him a difficult physical opponent for any centre-backs, least of all for one as young as Ansell or giving away as much height as would Broxham, if selected there.
AAP and MICHAEL LYNCH
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