Phoenix headed for the finals
Wellington Phoenix have all but guaranteed themselves a place in the Hyundai A-League playoffs with a scrappy 1-0 win against Adelaide in Christchurch on Saturday night.
A record 19,258 fans packed into the newly revamped AMI Stadium as a first-half goal from Jon McKain - his second in four matches - sealed the vital three points for Ricki Herbert's men.
Adelaide battled hard and probably should have earned a point given the number of chances it created from set pieces.
But a combination of good goalkeeping from Liam Reddy and wayward finishing by the depleted Reds meant they left New Zealand empty-handed.
The Brisbane Roar have defied a dominant performance from Sydney FC to keep their finals hopes alive after Sergio van Dijk snared a last-minute goal to hand the Roar a 1-0 victory in front of 8613 fans at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
Sydney, which would have gone to the top of the table with a victory, gave Brisbane keeper Matt Ham plenty of work throughout the match, but failed to convert, leaving a fighting Roar side to take the spoils at the death.
Impressive performances by Michael Zullo, Tommy Oar, Ham and Adam Sarota, as well as their first victory in over a month, will finally give Roar coach Ange Postecoglou something to smile about heading into the last two rounds of competition.
The Round 25 Hyundai A-League fixture between North Queensland and Newcastle at Dairy Farmers Stadium will now go ahead on Tuesday night.
The match was originally set to take place on Saturday night but had to be postponed due to torrential rain caused by tropical cyclone Olga.
Dairy Farmers Stadium had been saturated by 200 millilitres of rain in recent days and an additional 80 millilitres is expected to be dumped on the ground by Sunday.
The conditions have made it impossible for the match to go ahead as originally scheduled.
In the National Youth League, the AIS won its first-ever match 2-1 against the Newcastle Jets, Gold Coast drew 2-2 with Melbourne Victory and the Central Coast Mariners beat Perth Glory 3-2 in a shootout.