Wellington Phoenix

Phoenix returned to the play-offs this season after positive campaign that even made it feel as the Kiwis missed out on much more as they played very attractive football and scored lots of goals. Krishna was by far the biggest star up front and he deservedly won the Golden Boot, breaking several scoring A-League records on his way. To start with things didn’t look great under the new 3-4-1-2 system introduced by the appointed in the summer coach Rudan. Phoenix won just 1 of their opening 6 games (2 draws and 3 defeats). However, things soon improved with Krishna and Williams forming devastating partnership up front, Singh being the creative force right behind them, veterans Durante and Taylor dominating in defence and goalkeeper Kurto being excellent throughout the campaign. All this saw Phoenix enjoy nine-game unbeaten run (5 wins and 4 draws) in December and January and come the midway point of the season the Kiwis were well established in the top 6 and they never exited the play-off positions after. With 3 goals or more scored in 9 of the 27 rounds Phoenix were really pleasant on the eye and only injuries to regulars Taylor and Fenton late in the season brought a series of damaging defeats that saw the team missing out on home advantage in the play-offs. Instead Phoenix travelled to defending champions Victory for the Elimination Final after 3 draws registered between sides during the regular season. Krishna scored again in this play-off game, but 1:3 defeat was suffered and despite all the positives many Phoenix fans were left wondering what could have been.

Player of the Season: Roy Krishna