KEY POINTS:
Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert is hoping that some of the magic from the All Whites' soccer World Cup qualifying wins over New Caledonia will rub off on his side.
The Phoenix are still searching for their first win of the season and play Central Coast Mariners in
a fourth round A-League match in Wellington on Sunday.
The Phoenix are bottom of the table with just one point from a 1-1 draw with Queensland Roar and were beaten 2-4 by Melbourne Victory then by 0-3 in their last match, against Adelaide United.
That defeat by Adelaide left Herbert a grumpy man after a shambolic display but he thought his squad had rebounded strongly going by how well they trained this week.
All Whites Shane Smeltz, Mark Paston, Glen Moss, Jeremy Christie, Tony Lochhead, Tim Brown, Leo Bertos, Ben Sigmund and David Mulligan reunited with their club mates in training today and Herbert felt they was a good spirit flowing through.
"We are back to an even keel. There has been a fantastic reaction with both groups coming together today," said Herbert who is also the All Whites coach.
"Those (the All Whites) returning are in a good frame of mind - back to back international victories, there's got to be a reflection of that (in their games now)."
Herbert said the club's game had waned since they had made the final of the Pre-Season Cup and they needed to re-capture that form.
"We want to start getting some points on the board.
"I want to see a decent 90 minutes (on Sunday) and the message was very clear with the players responding really well at training.
"There are 18 games left and 54 points (to get) - there's a hell of a lot there but we can't go on week to week and kind of just knock one (game) off and say we will be right next week."
Win, lose or draw, he wanted to see a much better collective effort from the players on Sunday.
" We were very poor against Adelaide. I'll be disappointed if we don't see a different team on Sunday."
Striker Adam Kwasnik will not be available after tweaking a left knee in training this week and the medial ligament strain could put him out for two to three weeks.
But with Lei Lei Gao appearing to have overcome a hamstring strain and Bertos a groin injury, Herbert could well start a formidable attacking midfield with the pair alongside playmaker Daniel.
Central defender Jon McKain also trained today and Herbert thought he could well start alongside skipper Andrew Durante against the Mariners, who beat the Roar 4-2 in the third round.
The Phoenix defence will have to be sharp to stop the Mariners' Sasho Petrovski, Matt Simon and Dylan McAllister who have scored two goals each so far.
The Phoenix did not win a game against the Mariners last season but beat them 1-0 in the Pre-Season Cup.
"The Mariners since the inception of the league have been a difficult side to beat, they never give you time and space on the ball, and have got a lot of components in their game that they can be proud off," Herbert said.
"We got to make sure we are hard to beat as well."
- NZPA
