Football: Phoenix not short of scorers: Burns

Nathan Burns is on Asian Cup duty for Australia. Photo / Getty Images

The Wellington Phoenix will soon be without Nathan Burns but the striker is backing his teammates to pick up the scoring load in his absence.

Tomorrow's A-League home clash with the Western Sydney Wanderers will be Burns' last involvement with the Phoenix before linking up with the Socceroos, with his red-hot form earning him a recall to the national side for the Asian Cup campaign.

His involvement in the 16-team tournament, to be held across the Tasman next month, means Burns will miss next week's games against Adelaide on December 31 and Brisbane on January 4, leaving the Phoenix shorn of their top marksman.

Burns leads the golden boot race with 10 goals this season, helping the Phoenix on a four-match unbeaten run that has lifted them into fourth. But the 26-year-old was confident the goals would continue to flow even when he's out of the side, with coach Ernie Merrick blessed with an array of attacking talent.

"We believe that we are going to score goals," Burns said. "We know if someone's having a bad day, like Roy [Krishna] or myself or [Michael] McGlinchey that there's so many quality players that can stand up, with Roly [Bonevacia] and Alex [Rodriguez] as well.

"So there's great depth and if one of the players gets man-marked throughout the game, it brings up a lot of opportunities for other players."

Burns will get one more chance to add to his tally at Westpac Stadium tomorrow, with the Wanderers presenting on paper an easy target for the Phoenix to continue their push for a playoff place.

Western Sydney have endured an awful domestic season, winning the Asian Champions League but failing to earn a single victory in the A-League. The Wanderers, runners-up for the last two years, sit dead last on the ladder this season, garnering just three points from their opening nine games, a spell that included a 1-0 loss against the Phoenix in November.

They still possess a quality squad, though, and it seems a matter of time before they begin to find form, a prospect that left Burns wary ahead of tomorrow's meeting.

"They're fantastic and it takes a bit of time," he said. "They've brought new players in so it's going to take time for them to gel. Some of those players are my mates and they've got potential that, on any given day, they can come good. So we have to be very careful of that and not be complacent.

"But we've got to continue this momentum, which is really helping us at the moment. We've got the belief that before we go into the game that we can win, so I think that's half the battle."