{"id":364832,"date":"2026-04-05T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364832\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:55:08","slug":"wellington-phoenix-claim-first-away-win-over-melbourne-victory-in-nine-years-to-sit-on-cusp-of-a-league-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364832\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellington Phoenix claim first away win over Melbourne Victory in nine years to sit on cusp of A-League playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interim manager Chris Greenacre said he is proud of the fighting spirit of his players as they remain in the playoff hunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve said from word go that while it\u2019s mathematically possible we\u2019re going to give everything we can to try and get into that top six,\u201d Greenacre said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to the players before the game with some of the results that have gone around on Easter weekend that no one\u2019s going to do us any favours and it\u2019s down to us to dig in and really put on a show and I think we did that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted for the players, they deserve their reward for that and, you know, we\u2019re back here in a week\u2019s time against Melbourne City which will be another tough game for us which I hope we\u2019ll attack in the same manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return to form has come on the back of the club parting ways with Giancarlo Italiano<\/a> after their 5-0 derby defeat to Auckland FC in February<\/a>, and Greenacre stepping up for the remainder of the season. <\/p>\n

\"SanderSander Kartum celebrates his goal against Melbourne Victory. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Since Greenacre took charge, the Phoenix have claimed 10 out of a possible 15 competition points on offer.<\/p>\n

Greenacre was coy on his future and if he will be handed the manager role on a permanent basis beyond the season, but said he wants the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I the person to sit in this chair for the full time? I hope so, but again I\u2019ve been in football a long time and until that happens I\u2019ve just got to focus on the day job which I\u2019m trying to do each day. I\u2019m literally going day by day and that seems to be working at the moment so I\u2019ll continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Phoenix do have a tough run to finish the season, and are back at AAMI Park on Sunday when they face Melbourne City before facing the Western Sydney Wanderers in Christchurch Wanderers and Macarthur in Sydney to round out the season.<\/p>\n

Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interim manager Chris Greenacre said he is proud of the fighting spirit of his players as they remain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[191776,27500,5831,4995,74999,2741,31491,18089,299,1888,71,5267,78,191775,29137,4507,123,111,139,37968,121412,69,1118,90,1523,8143,57694,89431,110707,1974,191774,7812,140252,213,165,61,8982,52,6123,6027,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-364832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aami","9":"tag-aleague","10":"tag-alive","11":"tag-away","12":"tag-berth","13":"tag-claim","14":"tag-cusp","15":"tag-dramatic","16":"tag-dream","17":"tag-first","18":"tag-from","19":"tag-goal","20":"tag-in","21":"tag-kartum","22":"tag-keeping","23":"tag-late","24":"tag-melbourne","25":"tag-new-zealand","26":"tag-newzealand","27":"tag-nine","28":"tag-norwegian","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-of","31":"tag-on","32":"tag-over","33":"tag-park","34":"tag-phoenix","35":"tag-playoff","36":"tag-playoffs","37":"tag-record","38":"tag-sander","39":"tag-seen","40":"tag-sit","41":"tag-sports","42":"tag-their","43":"tag-to","44":"tag-victory","45":"tag-wellington","46":"tag-while","47":"tag-win","48":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}