Ben Waine is living the dream after scoring in his third straight A-League game but the teenage attacker admits Wellington Phoenix will leave Tasmania feeling an opportunity has been missed.
Western United held on to secure a 1-1 draw against Ufuk Talay’s team at UTAS Stadium in Launceston despite playing 45 minutes reduced to 10 players after Brendan Hamill was sent off in first-half stoppage time after collecting a pair of yellow cards.
Waine fired the New Zealand outfit into the ascendancy with his fifth goal of the campaign but, after Lachlan Wales curled in an equaliser, Phoenix were unable to make their numerical advantage count after the interval as Ulises Davila crashed a late strike off the woodwork.
"It’s obviously amazing to be playing consecutive games in the A-League and to be scoring is another thing, but three points is the most important thing and unfortunately it didn’t go our way," Waine said.
"It is disappointing but sometimes it’s actually tougher when they go down to 10 men. That’s just the way the game is but we’ll look back at the video and I think we’ll be very disappointed.
"In those last 10 minutes, you saw me going on the right just to try and create a bit of width and get the ball in the box as much as possible. Unfortunately, I didn’t do it as much as I probably anticipated."
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The Kiwi club head back to their temporary base in Wollongong sitting in ninth place, still only three points off the Finals Series spots, but the Green and Black find themselves in a stronger position in seventh, one point off the top six with two games in hand.
Wales struck with United’s only shot on target in the 27th minute after Waine had given Phoenix a seventh-minute lead, and the 23-year-old admitted Mark Rudan’s game plan was forced to change following Hamill’s late first-half red card.
But Wales believes the Victorian club can take heart from their second-half showing as they search for back-to-back finals trips since joining the A-League – and the Olyroos hopeful was pleased with the strike that notched his third goal of the season.
"It wasn’t a bad one. We kind of started the game a bit sloppy which was disappointing," Wales said.
"We found a rhyme at the end of that first half and then the red card kind of killed the game.
"We were disciplined in our shape in the second half and it was a good professional performance."
Next fixtures – Matchweek 19
Adelaide United v Western United
Friday, 30 April 2021
Venue: Coopers Stadium
Kick-off: 7.35pm AEST
Match Centre
Brisbane Roar v Wellington Phoenix
Saturday, 1 May 2021
Venue: Moreton Daily Stadium
Kick-off: 7.05pm AEST
Match Centre
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