Two minutes later, Ben Waine came off the bench to score his third goal of the season, before Bozhidar Kraev made it four and a near-perfect afternoon.
“It’s massive,” Phoenix captain Oli Sail told Sky Sport. “It means the world to us to get the monkey off the back. There’s been performances for large spells of games, but not the complete one.”
This was close. Although the Phoenix could’ve easily fallen behind and were cut open on a couple of occasions, including for Macarthur’s goal, the hosts dominated the run of play and fashioned more than enough chances to win.
Taking those chances at first appeared as if it would be a prerequisite for victory, given the way Macarthur began the match.
Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay had selected a fifth different backline in as many games, attempting to eradicate the defensive lapses that had plagued his side’s slow start this season, but they were again present in the opening 10 minutes.
With more holes appearing in the rejigged unit, Macarthur striker Anthony Carter spurned two golden early opportunities, hitting one shot straight at Sail before sending the next narrowly wide.
But the Phoenix quickly grew into the game and took a stranglehold on possession, with striker Oskar Zawada dropping deep to link play and draw out the defence, creating space wide for his teammates to attack.
It was Macarthur winger Daniel Arzani who came closest to opening the scoring, though, drawing a sharp save from Sail. The Socceroo had been giving Callan Elliot a tough time, but the fullback soon made the more decisive contribution, with his teasing near-post cross seeing Old expertly guide a header into the far corner.
The home side’s initial attempts to build on that goal - the 20-year-old’s first in Wellington - were frustrated in the second half by former Phoenix custodian Filip Kurto, leaving them prone to a sucker punch.
That duly came on the hour when Arzani laid in Lachlan Rose to poke a finish under Sail with his first touch since being introduced - but the Phoenix then responded in style.
That was especially true of their second goal, as Lewis found the back of the net via the underside of the crossbar from 25 yards out. If that strike came from individual brilliance, the next two owed to fine team play, with Waine and Kraev finishing off flowing passing moves to delight their skipper.
“With the amount of chances we had, it was always the danger at 1-0 that something like that could happen,” Sail said of the equaliser. “That was the perfect response - the boys fired up straight away.”
Wellington Phoenix 4 (Ben Old 45+3, Clayton Lewis 65, Ben Waine 67, Bozhidar Kraev 75)
Macarthur FC 1 (Lachlan Rose 59)
Halftime: 1-0
