Dadi delight, Phoenix shine bright
Eugene Dadi continued his dream start at the Wellington Phoenix with his third goal in two matches as they defeated North Queensland Fury 3-0 to cement their place in the Hyundai A-League top six.
Dadi headed home early in the second half of a match played in awful conditions before Paul Ifill fired home his ninth of the season.
A Jon McKain header in the 90th minute sealed the win to extend the Phoenix's unbeaten run at Westpac Stadium to 16 matches.
But Dadi was forced from the field with just under 30 minutes to play after an accidental head clash with Matthew Smith which required 15 stitches to a gash just under his eyebrow, although he was not concussed.
Smith also required treatment on the sidelines to a cut but returned to the field.
The howling wind and rain ruined any chance of a decent spectacle as the flight and pace of the ball was difficult to judge and players skidded on the turf making for a very scrappy encounter.
The nature of the match did not unduly concern Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert, who was delighted to take the three points which lifted his team to fourth on the ladder.
"Whilst the (first) 45 (minutes) is nowhere where we need it to be, I think we're a side that's getting results now and we can graft it out and we can score goals," he said.
"It felt like it (the wind) was strong one way and it would change and it was hard to play and get the ball down and do things."
"The most important thing tonight was to get three points. We got three good goals and now we keep moving forward."
Meanwhile, Adelaide United's slim finals aspirations have become wafer thin after the Reds drew 1-1 with the Central Coast Mariners at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.
The Mariners scored first with a 39th-minute penalty before Travis Dodd registered his second goal in as many weeks to find the equaliser four minutes later.
A win would have seen United draw level on points with the eighth-placed Mariners in what was shaping as a classic six-point game.
Instead the Reds remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder and are unlikely to be heading up the table anytime soon given their lack of quality finishing.
They had numerous corners in both halves, starting with Lloyd Owusu who hadn't played since November and found substitute Shin who was not quite ready for the pressure of the Hyundai A-League.
Central Coast hasn't won since Round 15 but will be pleased it has managed to snare a point in each of its last two games.
Its finals hopes are more realistic as it is still in striking distance of sixth-placed Perth.
Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar said he hadn't given up on finals despite the disappointing result at home.
"A draw is not good for us at this stage, we plugged away, they worked very hard, tried to find a winner and unfortunately just came up a bit short," Vidmar said.
"We just gave them far too much space in that first half, the quality on the ball was pretty poor but we rectified that in the second half."
Central Coast Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said his team displayed 'poor execution' to let the Reds back into the game but still felt unlucky not to take three points from the game.
"Adelaide, especially in the second half, put us under pressure but with those chances, on another day, like the last five or six weeks, we could've won the game," McKinna said.
In the National Youth League, Adelaide drew 0-0 with Central Coast.