The Wellington Phoenix's slim chances of making the A-League playoffs were extinguished in Wellington last night when Sydney FC beat them 2-0.
The result put Sydney level with Queensland Roar and Central Coast at the top of the table, although the other two teams can go ahead againin their matches this weekend.
The Phoenix needed to win all three of their remaining matches to make the top four.
Despite creating plenty of chances last night, they could not hammer home a goal and were downed by two goals late in the match.
Despite the best efforts of Vaughan Coveny, who caused the Sydney defence plenty of headaches, too many Phoenix crosses failed to find their mark and too many shots at goal lacked sufficient intent to trouble Sydney goalkeeper Clint Bolton.
The first Sydney goal came in the 79th minute, when Terry McFlynn - in his 50th A-League appearance - backheeled an innocuous ball from Utuk Talay into the goal.
Any chance the Phoenix had disappeared four minutes later when Alex Brosque skilfully scored the second.
He took a high ball into the danger zone from Talay on his left foot and glided it past goalkeeper Glen Moss.
The frustration for the Phoenix boiled over in the last few minutes of the game, when Ross Aloisi brought down Talay in a crude sliding tackle.
He was shown a red card by referee Ben Williams barely eight minutes after coming off the substitutes bench.
The Phoenix play Melbourne next Friday, and the Central Coast Mariners on January 19.
